The Socialist Party of Great Britain election platform on which we will be contesting the forthcoming 2010 General Election. The election blog can be read here and should be regularly updated Capitalism Must Go
These elections are taking place in the middle of the biggest economic and financial crisis since the 1930s. In a world that has the potential to produce enough food, clothes, housing and the other amenities of life for all, factories are closing down, workers are being laid off, unemployment is growing, houses are being repossessed and people are having to tighten their belts. And for once the main parties are being honest in offering more of the same, competing with each other as to which of them is going to impose the most “savage cuts”.
Capitalism in relatively "good" times is bad enough, but capitalism in an economic crisis makes it plain for all to see that it is not a system geared to meeting people's needs. It’s a system based on the pursuit of profits, where the harsh economic law of "no profit, no production" prevails. The headlong pursuit of profits has led to a situation where the owners can't make profits at the same rate as before. The class who own and control the places where wealth is produced have gone on strike – refusing to allow these workplaces to be used to produce what people need, some desperately. So, as in the 1930s, it’s poverty in the midst of potential plenty again. Cutbacks in production and services alongside unmet needs. Why should we put up with this? There is an alternative.
But that's the way capitalism works, and must work. The politicians in charge of the governments don't really know what to do, not that they can do much to change the situation anyway. They are just hoping that the panic measures they have taken will work. But the slump won’t end until conditions for profitable production have come about again, and that requires real wages to fall and unprofitable firms to go out of business. So, there's no way that bankruptcies, cut-backs and lay-offs are going to be avoided, whatever governments do or whichever party is in power.
What can be done? Nothing within the profit system. It can‘t be mended, so it must be ended. But this is something we must do ourselves.
The career politicians, with their empty promises and futile measures, can do nothing for us. We need to organise to bring in a new system where goods and services are produced to meet people's needs. But we can only produce what we need if we own and control the places where this is carried out. So these must be taken out of the hands of the rich individuals, private companies and states that now control them and become the common heritage of all, under our democratic control. In short, socialism in its original sense. This has nothing to do with the failed state capitalism that used to exist in Russia or with what still exists in China and Cuba.
THE SOCIALIST PARTY is putting up a candidate, here in Vauxhall, to give you a chance to show that you don't want capitalism but want instead a society of common ownership, democratic control and production just for use not profit, with goods and services available on the basis of "from each according to ability, to each according to needs".
If you agree, you can show this by voting for us. But more importantly get in touch with us to help working towards such a society after the election is over.
9 comments:
As a libertarian, I have to first say that capitalism is already gone completely, but I am a bit confused by your comment about the capitalist Russia and China. The era in which Russia and China are called communist, is actually when they were socialist. Look at the Marxist theory, it begins with feudalism, then moves to capitalism, then to socialism, and then to communism. They had definitely been through the feudal stage, they gave very little freedom to business or individuals, so they were definitely not capitalist, and in communism there was no government at all. So they were obviously socialist, and the most obviously failed and brutal governments of all time. One more thing is that the people have always been proven throughout history to be able to resolve crisis 1000 times better than government so why not give the power to them like in capitalism?
Marc , we are Marxists , and therefore tend to view russia and china as wrong turnings . The separation of socialism from communism as if separate type of societies was Lenin's corruption of Marx .
See our blog entry
http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2009/12/marx-v-lenin.html
and also here
http://mailstrom.blogspot.com/2008/09/myth-of-transitional-society.html
Could you give any examples of a successful communist government? Looking at present and historical times, it seems to me like the most prosperous country in the world was America until they became socialist. Are there more prosperous communist nations?
Marc,my understanding of Libertarian is that they wish for less government interferance in their daily lives,yet still adhere to a higher authority control,have i got the wrong end of the stick, or am i as confused as you are, regarding the diffrences between communism and socialism.
Marc, we're using different vocabularies. What you term as "socialism" is really just social democracy. A government providing welfare for its citizens isn't necessary socialist. In a social democracy, it functions to keep people from rebelling against the capital interests that actually control the government.
Likewise, the Soviet Union wasn't a socialist state because the means of production weren't controlled by the workers, it was controlled by a corrupt Communist bureaucracy that became the new bourgeoisie.
A socialist society is a wageless, moneyless, stateless society based on common ownership. The first link that ajohnstone gave is good for explaining socialism and the common misconceptions about it.
Thanks, you're right I'm a little confused on the vocabulary. My libertarian belief is that there is the most possible freedom from government and all men have rights that cannot be taken away by the majority rule. Basically government is a "necessary evil". We don't want it, but a government-less society isn't really realistic, because people crave power and once someone has it they try to get more. So I think that any time someone tries to achieve Marxism it will end up the exact same way that China, Russia, or NAZI Germany did.
It is all well and good exhorting the working class to vote for socialism. However, after over a century of existence, the SPGB is fielding one candidate in the 2010 general election? How do you expect people to take your strategy seriously when it seems apparent that you, as an organisation, do not have the confidence or will to mount a serious electoral challenge to the major parties?
Why should anyone waste his time and money running for elections in a majoritarian system? No minor party should bother to run more than a few candidates. The more money you spend on deposits that you could have spent productively, the harder the major parties will laugh.
And don't think that things will change if we get "Alternative Vote"! With sufficiently strategic voters, AV and FPTP are mathematically identical.
Richard - not sure if your comments were a response to mine, but... I personally have no faith in an electoral road to socialism, whatever voting system is in place. My main point is that any party, such as the SPGB, who argue that "the best way to proceed is to start by obtaining a democratic mandate via the ballot box for the changeover to socialism" (see the 'Vote for Revolution' article), need to vigorously campaign for such an outcome; or at least provide the means for the working class to register this vote by fielding sufficient candidates. As it stands, only the people of Vauxhall have the "chance to show that [they] don't want capitalism but want instead a society of common ownership, democratic control and production just for use not profit, with goods and services available on the basis of "from each according to ability, to each according to needs".
Whatever the virtues of the SPGB's politics - and I'm sure they are many - the fielding of one candidate in a general election, taking place in the midst of a deep capitalist crisis, is not a very encouraging sign.
As a revolutionary socialist, I am interested in discovering the way forward to our socialist future. I'm afraid the SPGB strategy does not appear to be it. I'd suggest a rethink is necessary.
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