This is what socialism means

 

Let's define a socialist. It is not how scholarly he or she may be in Marxism and the sciences. He or she may never have read a word of Marx or socialist literature. He simply needs to realise that: 

1.  Capitalism can no longer be administered or reformed in the interest of the working class or of society. 

2. Capitalism is incapable of eliminating poverty, wars, crises, etc. 

3. Socialism can solve the social problems confronting society today since the material conditions are ripe for socialism, save the lack of a socialist majority.

All members of the WSM would agree upon the conscious, majority, political nature of the socialist revolution; the Materialist Conception of History; the Law of Value; the Class Struggle; attitudes on leadership, reformism, and religion; the general nature of socialism as a system of society.

 However, a socialist does not necessarily require an encyclopedic knowledge of Marxian economics.  Understanding Marx’s Capital is not an acid test of whether a person is a socialist or not.

The real test of socialist convictions hinges on such factors as capitalism cannot be reformed or administered in the interest of the working class or of society; Capitalism, as a social system, is in the interest of the ruling class (albeit that capitalism, historically, is an essential stage of social evolution); Socialism is the solution to the social problems and irreconcilable contradictions of capitalism; Socialism cannot be forced down the workers’ throats against their wishes; The socialist victory is dependant upon a determined, conscious socialist majority.

 These are the characteristics of a socialist; coupling of the head and the heart, theory coupled with action. A socialist is one who recognizes and realises that capitalism can no longer be reformed or administered in the interest of society or of the working class; that capitalism is incapable of eliminating poverty, war, crises, etc.; and that the times call for arousing the majority to become socialists to inaugurate socialism, now possible and necessary.”

Socialism is possible, necessary and practical today the moment the great majority become conscious of their interests. The notion that the workers are dumb is plain hogwash. They are confused, especially the “friends” of socialism, speaking in the name of socialism. It still remains the case that, aside from the feeble voices of the World Socialist Movement, the great mass of workers are not exposed to socialist fundamentals. Our task is hard enough as it is. But despite the discouragements and disappointments, it takes a heap of understanding to realize the forces working for socialism. The greatest ally we have is capitalism itself.

 The greatest teacher of all is experience. Eventually, all the groping and mistaken diversions into futile efforts of reforming and administering capitalism will run their course. People learn from their mistakes. Necessity is the latent strength of socialism. Truth and science are on the side of socialism. Nothing is stronger than an idea comes of age. (These are not trite clichés.) It is easy to be cynical of socialist efforts. But, with the world facing the alternative of socialism or chaos, you don’t have to be a cynic to realise that we are on the eve of significant social changes. Already, you have seen indications in this direction in the thinking of people everywhere. Our task is to be a catalyst, the triggering agent that transforms majority ideas from bourgeois into revolutionary ones. What better ambition is there for working people to forever put an end to poverty and privilege.

A Dope on Drugs

 UK Government minister responsible for drug laws, Kit Malthouse, who is responsible for crime and policing for the UK Government, told MSPs that he did not believe that poverty is an underlying cause of drug use. Malthouse said that “drugs and violence drive poverty, not that poverty drives them”.

The data from the National Records of Scotland revealed that “people in the most deprived areas were 18 times as likely to have a drug-related death as those in the least deprived areas”. 

The study found that the ratio has almost doubled in the space of 20 years.

In the early 2000s, those in the most deprived areas were around 10-times as likely to have a drug-related death as those in the least deprived areas.

UK minister criticised for 'condescending' view that poverty doesn't drive drug deaths (yahoo.com)

Socialism Now

 

We freely acknowledge the Russian Revolution and widespread post-war discontent of 1918 and 1919 did inspire large segments of workers, that fact and we but the parties of the World Socialist Movement nevertheless questioned whether a socialist revolution was taking place. In the light of subsequent events, the socialist movement would be a far greater force and factor today had it not been for the squandered efforts and illusions of the Bolshevik counterfeits as far as a genuine socialist revolutionary movement is concerned.

 The Communist Parties and all their various splinter groups, usually revolve around personalities and “leaders.” They are dominated by the concept of a vanguard of “professional cadres.” It is the responsibility of the vanguard to guide and lead its followers. They have the appeal of being conspiratorial in nature. They stir the emotions with their “grassroots” activities of organising demonstrations and protests on every issue. Their concepts of the “Dictatorship of the Proletariat” and the “Transitional Period” are reflected in what they call “Democratic Centralism.” The control of the organisation is from the top, who inform the membership of “the party line.”

What is the task of those dedicated to arousing their fellow workers to become socialists? It is, first of all, to help uproot superstitions and to spread knowledge and understanding. Only the workers can emancipate themselves. The only factor in all the material conditions of today that the SPGB can see standing in the way of socialism is the political ignorance of the workers. Our opposition to reforms and reformism are just because their objectives are palliative in nature and are fought for in order to make the system function more smoothly. Though we do not advocate reforms nor fight for reforms, that does not mean that we refuse to accept reforms, as though we could if we wanted to. Historically, reform activities have dissipated the earnest energies of so-called socialists from doing any socialist work, whatsoever. The need for reforms is a full-time all-consuming job.

Conditions are now ripe for socialism, i.e. production for use and where all mankind cooperate in the common social interests. In a sane world fit for human beings, the social forces breeding wars disappear. It is time for a breakthrough to society in harmony with the tremendous technological developments of the last 100 years. The SPGB is not going to do anything for the working class except to arouse their fervour, determination and enthusiasm for socialist objectives. The aroused class-conscious workers will use their party as the lever of emancipation. To summarise: All such activities still leave the job left to be done, the only job worthwhile and meaningful: making socialists. The acid test of socialism is found in the workings of the real world.

The bond that makes us as one and inspires us is the recognition that capitalism can no longer be reformed or administered in the interest of the working class or of society, and the understanding that conditions are now ripe for socialism, which is the solution for society’s problems. All that is lacking is a socialist majority. This is the essence of our principles.

Healthy Life Expectancy Falls

 The number of years people in Scotland can expect to live in good health has fallen again, according to new figures from the Healthy Life Expectancy 2018 - 2020. 

Healthy Life Expectancy is a key measure of health and wellbeing in Scotland.

 People in deprived communities have the fewest healthy years in life.

On average, they spend a third of their lives in poor health - 24 more years than those in the least deprived areas.

Across Scotland, healthy life expectancy was 60.9 years for males and 61.8 years for females.

These figures have dropped each year from 2018 to 2022 for females and for the past three years for males.

Statistician Maria Kaye-Bardgett said: "These figures continue a trend we have seen in recent years with healthy life expectancy falling for males and females."

The areas with the lowest number of years spent in good health were Inverclyde for males (54.4 years) and North Ayrshire for females (54.0 years).

With those in the most deprived areas also dying younger, they spent more than 33% of their lives in poor health. Those in the richest parts of Scotland lived about 15% of their lives in poor health.

Fewer years of good health expected in Scotland - BBC News

Socialism - Heart and Head

 

The socialist movement is not only the heart but is a combination of the heart plus the head.

It is almost a truism to say that when the workers, as a class, couple their latent revolutionary fervour with socialist understanding, they become an indomitable force sweeping everything before it. 

“Nothing is more powerful than an idea come of age, it is more powerful than the strongest armies.” 

As to any fears that there is no room for differences of opinion in a socialist party, this simply isn’t so. Socialists have varying opinions on matters of a speculative nature, on interpretations of current events, on attitudes to cultural matters, specific aspects of science, even on projections of the actual workings of a socialist society.

 

We emphasise that the ballot is the lever of emancipation. We do this just because the conscious, socialist majority takes political action in order to be in a position to transfer the means of living from the hands of the parasites into the hands of society, as a whole. The ballot symbolises the nature of the socialist revolution. We advocate the ballot because we cannot visualise the need for a socialist majority to use violence. Violence does not symbolise the socialist revolution. However, we can get all tangled up in speculations of projecting possible contingencies that may exist in a future event. History may make liars out of us in predicting the workings of social forces based on scientific analyses. When we say that socialism is inevitable it always implies: barring unforeseen catastrophes such as pandemic plagues wiping out of the human race. However, given capitalism and its laws of motion, the next stage in social evolution is socialism.

For many years we have witnessed the supposed “success” of a series of practical efforts to rally workers to socialism by so-called clever policies. We have seen the transformation of these advocates of pragmatic socialist goals into supporters of the status quo — rebels who have been converted into modifying the system. Their trademark politics has become reforming, improving and administering capitalism.

Where are all the convinced socialists that the piecemeal reform approach was going to make? In the name of building up a socialist movement among the masses, they have emasculated and compromised socialist principles. When elected, they have actually administered capitalism is the only way it can be administered, in the interest of the capitalist class, even to the extent of supporting capitalist wars and crushing workers on strike. Look at the net result. Where are the socialist masses? As far as numbers are concerned the gradualists are not much better off than the Socialist Party. Their practical, realistic policies have proven worse than illusory. They have failed to make socialists. Yet they continue to heap scorn and sneer at the SPGB for our small numbers.

With smug omniscience, they dismiss the SPGB as “ivory tower Utopians,” “dogmatic sectarians,” “impossiblists,” etc. The real question is: Who have ignored the lessons of experience?

The Socialist Party of Great Britain has been confronted with scorn by those who campaign for something “in the meantime” and who are  actively participating in the “workers’ struggles.” The lure and fascinations of protests and demonstrations making demands on the government at every opportunity are very attractive. (In a sense, it does indicate how deeply-rooted discontent with capitalism really is, and it expresses the latent strength of socialism once the masses wake up to the need for changing the system instead of adjusting to it.) But — and this is the vital point — these activities are not in harmony with the immediate needs of our time: the making of socialists.

The lack of socialists is all that stands in the way of socialism, now. You can put these guys on the spot by asking: Where are the socialists you have obtained by your efforts? Their vaunted “fresh new approaches” prove to be very stale indeed.

For years their antecedents — the Labour Party with their gradualism, the Bolsheviks with their “revolutionary” programmes — actually gained victories on such practices. Yet they also served as recruiting sergeants for capitalist wars and the crushing of workers on strike. If there is one generalisation that could be applied to the Bolsheviks, Social Democrats, those who supported World War I, or on the issue of Fascism vs. Democracy, it is that they stood for their pet hobby-horse “burning issue of the day”. Recall the rhetoric: “Immediate Demands” and “Ultimate Demands.” We in the SPGB, are still being told, that “in the meantime” we must fight for some “priority” issue and we should join their ranks, the result, being capitalism administered in the name of “socialism.” All those “socialist governments” merely wound up administering capitalism for the capitalist class. And that is all that the radical progressive Left is able to do.

Had all that wasted energy, much of it earnest and sincere, been for socialism, what a great movement we could have had. 

Class Unity or Chaos

 

The times are ripe for socialism. We live in a world torn apart by crises and wars. Everywhere, capitalism is permanently mired in the bog of its own creation. Unemployment increases, poverty, undernourishment and sickness spread, prices rise and wages sink. As the world economic crisis deepens we can see the burden of the crisis being dumped increasingly on the shoulders of the working class. We can see government after government in the capitalist world enacting legislation with similar ends: to make the working class pay for the present crisis of capitalism. The basic struggle in society rages between the working class and the capitalist class, who are the enemy of the working people. Capitalism, while having developed the highest level of production, is a system of waste and inefficiency through useless competition and the alienation of men and women. Yet the working people remain outside the organisations for socialism. Why?

We live in a society that puts a price tag on everything. In order to bring about positive changes, we need a party that acts in our interests. The World Socialist Movement seek to change the economic laws governing society and human relations, by bringing order and plan into production. We would establish a genuine and meaningful democracy, collectively in control of the means whereby we live. There is no limit to the productivity of new technologies. But production is shackled by the capitalists who are guided by their lust for profit and not by the wants and needs of working people.

The workers must organise their forces for the complete overthrow of the system of wage slavery. Parliamentary activity, important though it be, is not enough. Our struggle must be carried on with the view of complete liberation from the profit system. The only power that can save humanity from the peril of barbarism is the working class. It must free itself of all dependence on the possessing classes. It must cease all collaboration with the exploiters and embark on the road of class struggle.

Civilisation forever hovers at the edge of an abyss. Socialism is the solution. The private property system is the enemy. Production must be released from the fetters of private property and profits. The resources of the world must pass into the possession of working humanity. All other problems, the problems of nationalism and of race and colour will be solved once society is freed from exploitation and class divisions. 

To maintain their class rule the capitalists have a number of political parties to defend their interests. These parties have different names, defend different policies, and use different rhetoric, but all serve the ruling class to maintain its domination over the workers. One of the most important tasks of the Socialist Party is to wage a determined struggle to expose these bourgeois parties and win the workers from their influence and to the cause of the socialist revolution.

It is a party of which the elected delegates will remain the servants – not become the masters. We stand for a world that can eliminate poverty and hunger and war, a world in which freedom is more than a word in a dictionary. For most people democracy remains a word without meaning.  We seek a world in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the producers themselves and the products of mankind are available to all. Around the world humanity is saying "Enough". The potential of mankind is virtually limitless if it is freed from economic and social oppression.

The SPGB stands for socialism. We have no illusions that the way will be easy, no visions of quick success. But the future belongs to humanity and the socialists.

Changing the World

 The wage system, under which labour has been reduced to a commodity, and millions of working people depend for their livelihood upon the permission of an employer, will be replaced by the cooperative system under which all may engage in useful occupation and work together in harmonious cooperation for the uplifting of humanity and the advancement of our civilisation.

Socialism starts out with the truism that our present system divides society into two classes, the “have all” and the “have nothing” class, and that it is the great mass of the people that do all the useful work who belong to the “have nothing” class. Socialism is class conscious. This does not mean that the Socialist Party must hate every capitalist individually, that some should be picked out as “scapegoats” while the economic power and political encroachment of all the others should be silently submitted to. It means that while we understand that every individual capitalist is the result of the present system as much as the wage worker, we still must fight the capitalists as a class because the producers cannot reasonably expect anything but exploitation from the exploiters as a class.

In spite of great economic expansion, working people do not benefit adequately from the increased wealth produced. Greater wealth and economic power continue to be concentrated in the hands of relatively few private corporations. The gap between those at the bottom and those at the top of the economic scale has widened. Millions still live in misery and insecurity condemned to a cheerless life, lacking dignity.

The world is characterised by stark inequalities of wealth and by the domination of the ruling group. Corporate wealth has resulted in a virtual economic dictatorship by a privileged few. The scramble for profits and the lack of any social planning despoils our planet’s rich resources.

The Socialist Party believes that our planet wise development and protection of its natural environment. Our industry can and should be so operated as to enable working people to use fully their talents and skills for the satisfaction of human needs. Unprecedented scientific advances have brought us to the threshold of a new technological revolution. Opportunities for enriching the standard of life are greater than ever. The challenge facing us today is whether future progress will continue to perpetuate the inequalities of the past or whether it can be based on principles of social justice. Economic expansion accompanied by widespread suffering and distress is not desirable. A society motivated by the drive for private gain and special advantage is one to aspire towards. 

The SPGB seeks a society where relationships are built upon mutual respect and on equality of opportunity, a society where everyone will have a sense of worth and belonging and will be enabled to develop his or her abilities to the full. It is the cooperative commonwealth we strive for in the battle of ideas for people's minds to banish forever the fear of oppression and to free ourselves from aggression and repression.

The poor, hungry and underprivileged of the world must know democracy not as a slogan but as a way of life that sees the world as one whole. The WSM will not rest content until every person in every land is able to enjoy equality and freedom to live a prosperous and meaningful life as a citizen of a bountiful peaceful world. This is the cooperative commonwealth which the Socialist Party invites all others to join together and to build where states, territories, or provinces will exist only as geographical expressions and have no existence as sources of governmental power other than perhaps seats of administrative bodies. The political state of capitalism has no place inside the cooperative commonwealth.

 

We aim to replace the present capitalist system, with its inherent inhumanity, with a society from which the domination and exploitation of one class by another will be eliminated. The new social system at which we aim is not one in which individuality will be crushed by an order of regimentation. What we seek is a proper collective organisation of our economic resources such as will make possible a much greater degree of leisure and a much richer individual life for every citizen.  The Socialist Party aims at political power so to put an end to this capitalist domination of our life. It is a democratic movement seeking to achieve its ends solely by constitutional methods. It appeals for support to all who believe that the time has come for a far-reaching reconstruction of our economic and political institutions and who are willing to work together for the carrying out of our goal.