Tariffs

What special relationship Starmer? Capitalist protectionism is back in favour.

‘Britain will be hit by Donald Trump’s global tariffs, Downing Street has admitted for the first time, as hopes for a deal before the US president’s so-called “Liberation Day” fade. But there was a blow for Sir Keir today as Mr Trump confirmed that tariffs to be introduced on Wednesday will hit “all countries”. Stock markets tumbled around the world after the US president’s comments, with the FTSE 100 in London dropping by as much as 1.5p

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “When it comes to tariffs, the Prime Minister has been clear he will always act in the national interest, and we’ve been actively preparing for all eventualities ahead of the expected announcements from President Trump this week, which we’d expect the UK to be impacted by alongside other countries.’

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/31/ftse-100-markets-latest-news-trump-tariffs-putin-oil-russia/

‘UK automotive leaders are calling for immediate trade negotiations following the US government’s decision to impose a 25% tariff on imported vehicles, set to take effect next Wednesday. The move threatens a sector already facing declining sales and rising production costs.

The US is the UK’s second-largest car export market, valued at £7.6 billion. In 2023, over 101,000 UK-built vehicles—mainly premium and luxury models—were shipped to the US, accounting for nearly 17% of total car exports. The tariffs will hit major UK manufacturers, including Jaguar Land Rover, BMW, Toyota, Nissan, and Stellantis.

Jaguar Land Rover, which employs 11,000 people in the UK, relies on the US as its biggest overseas market. BMW’s three UK plants, which focus on Mini production and employ around 8,000 people, could also face significant cost increases. The US remains a key Mini market despite declining sales due to model changes.’

https://www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk/mag/featured/uk-motor-industry-urges-urgent-talks-as-us-imposes-25-tariffs-on-car-imports/

The below from the Socialist Standard March 2025

‘Tariff’, Trump has repeated many times with typical exaggeration, ‘is the most beautiful word in the dictionary’. He seems to see it as a cure-all that will Make American capitalist manufacturing industry Great Again. This may just have been crude vote-catching but this illusion evidently caught the votes of quite a few workers.

A tariff is a tax on imported goods and is usually introduced to protect the profits of domestic producers of the same goods. These will have been complaining of being out-competed by ‘cheap imports’ and ‘unfair competition’ and will have lobbied politicians to do something about this. The tariff is paid by the businesses that import and sell the goods in question (it is not paid by the country from which the goods are imported, as Trump sometimes implies). In the first instance it is the importers who will be impacted. Because they will be making a smaller profit, they will import less and, in accordance with the law of supply and demand, the price of the good on which the tariff has been imposed will go up, whether imported or produced domestically. This will make domestic producers more competitive and so enable them to maintain or restore their profits.

This is obviously something that will appeal to the domestic producers concerned but what about other sections of the capitalist class? If the tariff-hit goods are sold to capitalist firms as materials or components for what they produce and sell, these firms will not be so happy as this will increase their costs. If they are consumer goods sold to workers this will increase the pressure on employers generally to pay higher wages (not to increase living standards, but simply to maintain them). If the consumer good is part of the basket of goods used to compile the consumer prices index, whose increase is regarded as a measure of ‘inflation’, then inflation in this sense will go up.

In terms of employment, the workers in the protected industry will keep their jobs for a little longer before automation catches up with them. On the other hand, some workers in other industries will lose theirs.

The overall effect of imposing a tariff will be to raise some prices and not just of the goods on which the tariff is levied. The main beneficiaries will be the domestic producers of the goods in question. Their profits will be ‘protected’.

However, there are other considerations. To be effective in protecting the profits of a particular sector, a tariff needs to be imposed not just on the good coming from one country but on it coming from any country; otherwise the importers of the good could still import it. Which will be why Trump has talked of imposing a tariff on some goods (steel and aluminium) wherever they come from. Another complication is that the country singled out will likely impose counter-tariffs which would harm sectors producing for export. The EU and China will be tougher nuts to crack than Canada or Mexico.

Although Trump gave the impression on the campaign trail that American manufacturing industry will expand and thrive behind protective tariff walls, his first use of tariffs has been as a bargaining tactic. To impose them and then open negotiations with the other capitalist state about what it needs to do to get them removed.

Tariff protection has unintended side-effects and, in any event, does not benefit all sections of capitalist business in the country imposing the tariffs. The working class of the country as a whole is not affected much either way, if only because their wages are tied to the cost of living and tend to go up or down as it does. It is not a working-class issue.’

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2020s/2025/no-1447-march-2025/cooking-the-books-1-who-benefits-from-tariffs/

SPGB Meeting TONIGHT 28 March. 1930 GMT. ZOOM

 

HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS? (ZOOM)

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Event Details

• Date: March 28, 2025 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

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Discussion of recent events
Host: Paddy Shannon

To connect to a Zoom meeting, click https://zoom.us/j/7421974305

War psychosis

 

Do you see a trend here? In the first piece the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management is quoted as saying, ’We want people to be ready, not to panic’.

Panic is exactly the emotion TPTB are trying to instil in its populations. The Bogeyman is coming to get you and we’re the only ones who can save you. Providing, that is, that you subjugate your rights, freedoms and survival to us without question and become totally subservient to us. Not forgetting the willingness to sacrifice how ever many lives we care -we don’t care in reality,- to offer up in the pursuit of our crazy quest for our insane goals. That’s capitalism folks! Are we going to change it before they destroy the world and all of us in it?

The ‘leadership’ of Western Europe are displaying a visceral hatred of Russia and are intent on destroying it. We hold no special approval for Russia, it’s part of global capitalism, capitalism being what we want the majority who run it on behalf of the minority ruling class to replace with socialism.

The current idea of the Western European elites that they can instigate a war with Russia – and its allies – and win suggests that they are aware in in a conventional conflict they could not win. The alternative is to therefore use nuclear weapons, either tactical or strategic. At that stage no one wins.

Obviously, most of us are not so stupid as to welcome the idea of mass destruction and the end of life on earth so in the period when arms, equipment and resources are being built up the propaganda ‘war’ will begin to increase in intensity. Better Dead than Red! This propaganda ‘war’ has already begun and its effectiveness will be seen over a period of time.

The solution? An awareness and understanding of, desire for, and implementation of socialism as the only sane social system which will be beneficial to the whole human race. The choice is yours.

‘The European Union has advised its 450 million inhabitants to stockpile essential supplies sufficient for at least 72 hours, citing increasing risks of war, cyberattacks, climate change, and disease.

EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib stated on Wednesday that the warning reflects a broader strategy to improve civil readiness across the bloc. While not mentioning Russia specifically, she stressed that the Ukraine conflict threatens European security.

"For three years in Ukraine, we have seen a battlefield of bombs, and bullets, drones, fighter planes, trenches and submarines. Yes, our European security is directly threatened by this," Lahbib said.

Several EU countries have consistently named Moscow as a significant threat to regional security. France, Poland, the Baltic states, and Finland have all raised concerns over alleged Russian cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, and political interference. They have also described the Ukraine conflict as an example of aggressive behaviour that poses a military threat to the bloc.

Moscow has consistently denied any intention to attack NATO countries or the EU. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed such claims as “nonsense” meant to scare European populations and increase military budgets.

“We want people to be ready, not to panic,” Lahbib said. “Preparedness is not fear mongering – it is common sense in a time of uncertainty.”

Under the strategy, the EU is advising households to keep essential supplies, including non-perishable food, bottled water, flashlights, batteries, first-aid materials, and key documents. Citizens are also encouraged to have access to a short wave radio in case of power or communication outages.

The EU is also planning to create a strategic reserve of key resources, including firefighting aircraft, medical transport, mobile hospitals, and stockpiles of protective equipment for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear incidents.

“Today’s threats facing Europe are more complex than ever, and they are all interconnected,” Lahbib said. “From war on our borders to increasingly frequent climate disasters, the EU must be ready to face the unexpected,” she added.

The initiative mirrors long-standing practices in countries such as Finland and Sweden, where civil defence preparations and emergency guidance are more established. Sweden, for example, recently updated its ‘If Crisis or War Comes’ handbook with modern scenarios, including how to respond to nuclear threats.

The Commission’s new plan includes the creation of an EU-level crisis hub to coordinate cross-border responses and ensure continuity of essential services, from healthcare to energy and telecommunications.’

‘Poland will urge its citizens to stockpile at least three days’ worth of supplies to prepare for a war or other crisis, Deputy Interior Minister Wieslaw Lesniakiewicz has said.

It comes after a proposal by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to push through an €800 billion ($875 billion) military build-up intended to counter an alleged threat from Russia, something Moscow has dismissed as unfounded.

Each citizen needs to be able to survive at least three days with no help from the state in the event of war or another extreme situation, Lesniakiewicz said. He urged Poles to stockpile supplies such as water, medicine, food, and power banks. People should also get transistor radios for emergency communication when other methods are unavailable, he added.

Polish ministries will cooperate to publish a guide on preparing for crises, basing it on a similar publication released in Sweden, he said.’

‘The German government should prepare hospitals across the country so that they are able to operate efficiently in case of a military conflict, Bavarian Health Minister Judith Gerlach has argued, citing a perceived threat from Russia.

In an interview to the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung the official claimed that the “military threat posed to Europe by Russia and the possible withdrawal of the new US President [Donald] Trump from the previous security partnership also mean a massive need for action on the part of the German healthcare system and the whole civil society.” She argued that simply beefing up the armed forces would not be sufficient to adequately address the challenge supposedly facing the country.

“We therefore need a comprehensive ‘civil operational plan Germany’” geared toward addressing a wide range of emergencies, including military aggression, Gerlach stressed.

According to the Bavarian health minister, in such a scenario Germany’s healthcare system would have to be prepared to provide services to more than 80 million civilian residents, as well as wounded military personnel.

“The state must set clear standards. This goes for the EU level, the federal and the regional [levels],” the official told the newspaper. She also emphasized the need to ensure Germany’s and the EU’s ability to produce all the medicines and drugs they may need.

Given likely personnel shortages in hospitals in case of a large-scale military conflict, Gerlach suggested that the German government should consider imposing mandatory civilian service, along with the military draft.

Moscow has consistently denied allegations that it intends to attack any NATO or EU member countries, labelling such claims as “nonsense” designed to scare people and justify increased defence budgets.’

Growth? Erm...

 

“Now, however, Reeves’s advisers openly admit that the high growth implied by Labour’s manifesto is a pipe dream.” (The Times, 21 March)

Implied? No, promised, in fact proclaimed from the rooftops. If elected Labour would “grow” the economy.

Their excuse for failing (within a year!)?

“‘The world is changing,’ one says. ‘Global uncertainty means growth across the world – in the eurozone, the US and the UK – has been hit’.”

The SPGB has said repeatedly (and experience shows) that capitalism runs to its own uncontrollable economic cycle, so election promises are likely to evaporate in double-quick time.

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/

Socialist Sonnet No. 187

Change

 

The deserving and undeserving poor

Will be forever with us so it seems,

At least as long as capitalism’s

Allowed to remain. Poverty and war

Are its indelible marks, that might be

Obscured for a while by some cosmetic

Concealer, liberally applied by a sleek

Politician, who’s not actually free

To do much else, as it’s accountancy

That must have the final decisive say

While capital continues to hold sway,

The determinant of philosophy.

It’ll not change the world unless and until

Real change has become the popular will.

 

D. A.

Would you risk life for cheeseburgers?

‘Lord Kitchener is flexing his finger, When it’s rivalry and competition,

And the prospects of profit seduces. A radical change is required because

The price of peace is capitalism’s loss. A beckoning to come hither once more, Inducing young men and women to war. In the cenotaph memory lingers, Although it appears amnesia prevails When a call to the colours comes their way And they sleep-march towards their beds of clay; Too often, it seems, humanity fails. Enough now of the lame old excuses For yet another bellicose mission, When it’s rivalry and competition, And the prospects of profit seduces. A radical change is required because The price of peace is capitalism’s loss.’

https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2024/02/socialist-sonnet-no-134.html

It’s ill-mannered to point a finger at someone we were taught. It’s more ill-mannered to use a pointing finger to con, persuade, influence and sway young men to sign up and fight capitalism’s conflicts for it.

Lord Kitchener, Secretary of War during World War One was featured on a propaganda poster pointing his finger and exhorting, (threatening?) those viewing it. Under his picture were the words ‘Wants You. Join your country’s army! God save the king.’ This appeal to patriotism, or stupidity, was considered an effective way of persuading British young men to voluntarily enlist. Based on this original there were many other capitalist states who issued similar brainwashing images.

As of yet Ukraine hasn’t issued something similar under the heading Zelensky wants you to throw yourselves into the meat grinder that is the Ukrainian Russian conflict. It must surely only be a matter of time. Russians too are perishing unnecessarily.

Most people, apart from many European Union ‘leaders’ want to see an end to the senseless slaughter occurring in Ukraine. Amongst those who may wish otherwise the opportunity to profit from the EU projected eight hundred billion Euro war fund may be an an important consideration.

It now appears that Ukraine wants to add fresh victims to the conflict in order to ensure its continuation.

The real, and only, l resolution to present, and future, capitalist conflicts all over the world, is the abolish of capitalism and the implementation of socialism.

‘Ukraine must enlist more young men into its armed forces, as a number of units face a pressing need for reinforcements, according to the country’s leader, Vladimir Zelensky.

In a regular news briefing, Zelensky announced that the military leadership had approved an expansion of recruitment targeting citizens aged 18 to 24. While mandatory conscription applies to men over 24, the government is trying to encourage younger individuals to volunteer by offering an array of incentives.

“I visited the front on Saturday. There is a demand from specific brigades, and we will be responding positively to it. There will be more brigades employing young specialists,” Zelensky stated. “This initiative will extend to the National Guard and border guard units, as all effective defence forces should be given every opportunity to enhance their capabilities.”

Under a recruitment campaign launched in February, young adults are promised 1 million hryvnia ($24,000) for a year of military service, as well as free dental care and the option to leave Ukraine after fulfilling their contract – an option not available to regular fighting-age men.

The Defence Ministry is promoting the offer by showing how much recruits can buy with the money – equating it to 15,625 cheeseburgers or 185 years of Netflix subscriptions. Critics have condemned the ad campaign as demeaning to potential recruits.

Last year, Zelensky reduced the minimum conscription age from 27 to 25, but refrained from further adjustments, citing concerns over the economic and demographic impact. Western supporters have urged Kiev to enlist younger men, saying the aging Ukrainian army is struggling to fight effectively.’

NO WAR BUT CLASS WAR

More poverty or concerted action?

 

A politician once remarked that a week is a long time in politics. Five years is more than long enough for the majority working class to understand and fulfil their historical role and replace capitalism with socialism.

How much poorer do we all have to become, both financially and in quality of life, before we all take decisive action and remove the root cause?

The Metro reports that ‘An average family in Britain could be £1,400-a-year poorer by 2030, according to new analysis.

Frozen tax thresholds, rising mortgage and rent costs, and falling real earnings are all predicted to leave people worse off in the next five years.

The hardest blows will fall on the poorest third, who will bear the impact at twice the rate of middle and high earners, according to the analysis by thinktank The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).’

https://metro.co.uk/2025/03/23/uk-families-1-400-a-year-poorer-2030-22774425

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation report can be read here.

https://www.jrf.org.uk/cost-of-living/starmers-missed-milestone-the-outlook-for-living-standards-at-the-spring-statement

SPGB Meeting TONIGHT 21 March. 1930GMT. ZOOM

 

CAPITALISM IN INDIA (ZOOM)

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Event Details

• Date: March 21, 2025 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

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Speaker: Andy Thomas

To connect to a Zoom meeting, click https://zoom.us/j/7421974305

Overseas non-development

 ‘Why are western governments suddenly slashing overseas aid budgets? Partly because it plays well with right-wing voters, who are told it’s all spent on things like transgender mouse research. Partly, in Europe, because states are scrambling to find money for armaments now that Trump seems to be pulling the plug on NATO.

It’s an open secret in aid circles that overseas development aid can very often result in ‘an inverse correlation between aid and per capita growth‘, ie, the more aid a country gets, the poorer the people become.

So much for capitalism’s ‘noble’ aspiration to abolish poverty. Most aid is not for that anyway, but for self-serving reasons. Abolish capitalism however, and there’d be no poverty.’

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/

Socialist Sonnet No. 186

Not Peace

 

There are ceasefires and rumours of ceasefires:

Behind the scenes diplomacy takes place,

With everyone desperate to save face,

Even as another deadline expires.

Arms industry profits continue to soar,

While the attrition rate’s unforgiving,

As also the rising cost of living

For the many dispossessed, who’re still poor.

And it’s the self-same poor’s sons and daughters

Who’ll make the munitions and build the tanks,

As well as being recruited to the ranks,

Then dispatched to the various slaughters.

Meanwhile, grandiose leaders strut around

On what they claim as their moral high ground.

 

D. A.

Ein Volk-swagen

Do you own, have owned, a BMW, a Mercedes, or a Volkswagen?

If the answer is yes does that mean that you support the NSDAP, Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei  ?

Of course not, stupid question, right?

Volkswagen, or the peoples car, was the 'brainchild' of Adolf Hitler and Ferdinand Porsche. In 1934 Hitler decreed that production should begin of the original 'beetle'.

During World War Two all of the three German vehicle manufacturers were involved in producing war materials and slave labour was employed by them.

Karl Marx said, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce."

History is again on the verge of repeating itself – tragic or farcical?

In a capitalist system Volkswagen will have no problem in offering up justification for their resorting back to war production. Well, you know we've got to increase our declining profits, then there's the shareholders, and our executives bonuses of course.

How would German car workers feel about making tanks or guns or whatever would be used to kill other workers with who they have no quarrel?

Note that in the article below the EU move toward a war economy has sent the share prices of arms manufacturers soaring.

Capitalism was long ago on the wrong side of history, how much longer before the working class majority which runs it, and supports it, says enough is enough?

'Struggling German auto maker, Volkswagen, is open to producing weapons and military equipment, CEO Oliver Blume has said. He made the remarks in response to a recent EU announcement of a plan to spend up to $870 billion on its defence sector.

The automotive giant posted declining sales and profits last year and was forced announce plant closures and mass layoffs in Germany for the first time.

Germany’s was the worst-performing major economy globally in 2023 posting a 0.3% contraction, followed by minimal growth in 2024 leading to recession. The economic crisis is partly due to the loss of affordable Russian energy following Ukraine-related sanctions.

Speaking to German state broadcaster NDR Blume announced that the carmaker was closely examining the needs of the defence industry.

All options are on the table, he said, including repurposing some factories from civilian to military production. “We are fundamentally open to such topics,” Blume claimed.

The idea has been supported by Germany’s largest arms manufacturer Rheinmetall. Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said on Wednesday that the VW facility in Osnabrueck would be a good fit for a conversion.

VW previously produced military vehicles for the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany, during World War II, including lightweight transporter Kübelwagen and amphibious four-wheel-drive vehicle Schwimmwagen.

A VW plant was involved in manufacturing components for the V-1 flying bomb, a type of early cruise missile used to devastating effect by the Nazis.

The EU intensified its efforts to militarize after US President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized European NATO members for failing to meet the bloc’s defence spending commitments.

In response Brussels announced a large militarization initiative proposed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Dubbed ReArm Europe, the plan could divert €800 billion ($870 billion) into the defence sector over the next four years. While the announcement sent share prices of Europe’s largest weapons producers soaring, the plan has been rejected by Dutch lawmakers, citing fiscal concerns.'

Capitalism health warning.

 

The MailOnline carried a piece titled, ‘Death of the work ethic: With Labour at war over benefits cuts, ONE IN FOUR young people consider quitting workforce entirely.’

‘... one in ten workers is said to be actively considering leaving the workforce, equivalent to 4.4million Britons. This rises to a quarter of 18 to 24-year-olds, who are 40 per cent more likely than older generations to give poor mental health as a reason for quitting work.

A third of those classed as 'economically inactive' are 'not interested' in returning to jobs – with 37 per cent saying low 'self-esteem and confidence' acts as a barrier, a report from accounting firm PwC reveals. It concludes that considering leaving work has 'gone mainstream'.

The nub of the piece is the Labour government’s intention to cut welfare payments.’

As the Socialist Standard article below makes explicit, ‘Governments are elected to run capitalism. They don’t like paying "benefit" to people who could be employed turning capital investment into profit. Men and women who receive "benefit” (whether unemployment, sickness, invalidity, or whatever) are a drain on the profit system.’

Knowledge of socialism would reinforce their desire not to be burdened by useless unnecessary work that benefits only the capitalist class and not the wider society.

For involvement in the production of quality services and goods for free use and access by all they, like everyone, needs socialism. Not a guarantee but we are willing to lay a serious bet that the happiness engendered by doing so would see personal satisfaction from living in a socialist society would increase dramatically.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14505435/Labour-benefits-cuts-ONE-FOUR-young-people-quitting-workforce.html

From the Socialist Standard October 1997.

‘Governments are elected to run capitalism. They don’t like paying "benefit" to people who could be employed turning capital investment into profit. Men and women who receive "benefit” (whether unemployment, sickness, invalidity, or whatever) are a drain on the profit system. Never mind that the owners of the means of wealth production are themselves a drain on the rest of us who do all the world's useful work.

To save money for the taxpayer the previous government introduced a test to weed out what it called benefit cheats. According to an unpublished report quoted in the Big Issue (2-8 June), 198,500 out of 785,000 people examined were denied benefit between April 1995 and September 1996. Many claimants failed the “all work" test.

In capitalism there are three kinds of work, only one of which will be needed in socialism. First there is work that is harmful to those who do it or against whom it is done. Second there is work that is "useful" to the profit system but useless in any human need sense. And third there is work that has a purpose, whose result does meet some human need.

There are, unfortunately, plenty of examples today of the first kind of work. There is the legally authorised killing and injuring of "the enemy" by members of the armed forces and the whole paraphernalia of occupations and "enterprises" which have violence as their end product or reason for existence: the arms manufacturers, the arms dealers, the plotters and planners, the spies and counter-spies, the propagandists, the war correspondents, and so on. Apart from a few psychopaths drawn to such destructive occupations, the people involved are mostly ordinary, respectable citizens, honest, law-abiding, kind to children and animals. It is the profit system, organised within potentially if not actually hostile nation-states, that requires such work to be done.

Besides work that is harmful to others, there is work that causes harm to those who engage in it. Coal-mining is a greatly reduced industry in Britain, but many miners in other countries still have to risk their lives and their health in dangerous working environments. Ironically, some work undertaken by members of the ruling class can be harmful to them if indulged in excessively. The Evening Standard (25 June) reported that the Duke of Westminster, with his estimate £1.65 billion mega-fortune, had been ordered by his doctors to take three months off from "running his business affairs and his work for 160 charities". Of course the big difference between the Duke and the millions of real workers is that they have to find an employer or rely on state charity, whereas he can choose whether or not to work shuffling money around.

The third kind of work is that which is really useful, producing goods or services which people actually need: producing and distributing food, making clothes and furniture, building and repairing homes, schools and hospitals, teaching, healing the sick, and so on. It is difficult to estimate what proportion of all employment in capitalism is useful—work that would still be done in a socialist world. A generous estimate would be half, but the true figure may be 20 percent or less. In our pamphlet Socialism as a Practical Alternative we discuss how we can eliminate the waste of capitalism and choose productive methods appropriate to socialism.

People who have to do harmful or useless work for a living are encouraged to believe that they have no choice in the "real world", dominated by the system that is endorsed by the voters at periodic elections. A first step towards socialism is to stop believing that this capitalist “real world" is inevitable. It’s a good idea to make the best of any job you have to work at, whether its end-product or service is worthy or worthless. But it's not a good idea to pretend that a "nothing" job—doing it only in the service of capital—is any better than it is.

Some years ago— 1968 to be precise— Ronald Fraser edited a book on Work: Twenty Personal Accounts. The accounts make fascinating reading, many of them offering a powerful indictment of the waste of life involved in capitalist employment. Take the night-watchman, for example. He describes his job as "guarding the sleep of capital". Producing nothing, this labour exists to make nothing happen, its aim is emptiness. The night-watchman has the sensation of being turned into an object, a labouring material thing. Demanding no part of himself, the job in fact demands everything, on the lowest possible level.

Studs Terkel, an American writer, is best known for his book on Working, subtitled "people talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do". Listen to the automobile salesman: "The public thinks the automobile salesman is a rat. Some of the customers arc the real animals . . . They don’t have to be animals. It's the whole system that makes 'em animals".

The productive potential of modern industry is immense, and so is its potentiality for human liberation. In a rationally and humanly organised socialist world it could be used not only to meet basic and imaginative human needs but also to create more humane and satisfying conditions of work.

Capitalist employment offers much work that is at best useless and time-wasting and at worst harmful and destructive. The profit system treats the working abilities of men and women as commodities useful only to create marketable goods and services. It pays for workers’ skills, but everything also they are or have or want is subordinated to their "efficient” employment. It wastes them in unemployment—when no profit can be seen from employing them—and it wastes them in much of what they have to do only in the service of capital.

There is. however, an alternative. Today we have to be employed or unemployed, but tomorrow—or at least as soon as we can dissuade our fellow workers from continuing to support capitalism—we can have truly human work. As Ray Pahl put it in his book On Work: "the value system that encourages competition or greed at the expense of collaboration and altruism may not ultimately succeed”.[

Stan Parker

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-work-test-1997.html

Capitalism crumbling?

 

Two American economists discuss whether capitalism is crumbling

Their idea as to what socialism really is is erroneous but they they do make some interesting points. Twenty six minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3qLvgyRSKc

Marx, God and the Devil (Humour)

 

'When Karl Marx arrived at the Pearly Gates, St Peter had a problem: Marx was listed in the Big Book. St Peter gave God a quick call to explain that Marx had turned up and what he should do about it.

”Marx!” said God “How did he get on the list. He’s been bad-mouthing me for years. 'Opium of the masses’ indeed! Give Old Nick down below a call and see if he’ll take him, he owes me a favour or two.”

St Peter dutifully rang Satan. ”Yeah, go on, we’ll take him.” replied Satan ”Don't know how he didn’t get sent here in the first place given all the trouble he’s caused.”

So Marx was sent to Hell.

Two weeks later, Satan rang God. ”See that Marx, its really not working out. All the demons are out on strike, there’s protests and demonstrations everyday with Marx keep urging people to cast off their chains. He’s causing absolute chaos. He was on your list so you need to take him back.”

Eventually God reluctantly agreed that Marx could be admitted to Heaven after all.

After a couple of weeks went by and Satan rang God to see whether everything was working out, but an angel answered the phone. “Hey, Gabriel”, said Satan “can I speak to your boss?”

”Boss?” said the angel

”Yeah, you know, God” said Satan, impatiently

“Oh, him! Ah, no, not any more”, replied Gabriel “No bosses here, we’re all comrades now!”'

Remembering Karl Marx

 

‘Born on 5 May 1818, Karl Marx died 14th March 1883 after a long illness, his end undoubtedly being hastened by the death of his wife in 1881 and his favourite daughter, Jenny, in 1882. Marx devoted the best years of his life in the struggle for socialism and the fruits of his labours are a legacy of inestimable value to the working class. There were less than a dozen mourners for his funeral at Highgate Cemetery. You can tell capitalism is in trouble when people start talking about capitalism – people become aware of capitalism in crisis, just as an illness or injury makes you newly aware of the body you always took for granted. Thanks to the crisis, people all around the world are talking about capitalism again. To get a proper understanding of the phenomenon of recessions you have to look back to someone the press and TV tell us has been discredited and whose influence in the world is supposed to have been wholly bad – Marx. It was Marx who developed a real understanding of how the capitalist system operates and why it constantly fails to live up to the hopes of the politicians who preside over it.

For years Marx's work was treated either by a conspiracy of silence or under ceaseless attack by politicians and academics who defended capitalism. These days it is different. In 1999 Karl Marx was voted the “Greatest Thinker of the Millennium” in a BBC online poll. Then in 2005 he was voted the “Greatest Philosopher” in another BBC poll. Karl Marx, the one-time almost unknown exile, the patient digger for economic facts in the British Museum Library, is now a "world figure." No man of his generation could claim so many alleged followers, so many bitter enemies, as Marx, if he were alive to-day. Often a lot of nonsense is talked about Karl Marx, most of it from people who have never read him. But nowadays practically every bookshop will have the works of Marx for sale. These days it is fashionable to write long, confusing, dull books about Marx. Practically every place of higher education will have a course on some aspect of Marxism. Thanks to these modern Marxist scholars we have not just one Marx but many: Hegelian Marx, Young Marx, Mature Marx. Karl Marx was a "man of science" (his studies of capitalism) and a revolutionary who saw the working class having the "historical", mission to abolish capitalism and to take humanity on to socialism.

Marx wasn't just a scholar, but an activist and commentator on the world he often painfully lived in. No man's ideas have suffered more at the hands of his self-claimed disciples. Even in Marx's own time his views were distorted and misrepresented by would-be friends as well as opponents, so that Marx himself was driven to declare that he "was no Marxist." Despite the widespread myth that he was discredited by the events of the 20th Century and given the gross distortions and misrepresentations of Marx’s ideas from Leninism, Trotskyism, Stalinism and Maoism, Marx’s ideas are in fact as relevant as ever today. Far from discrediting Marx, the events have vindicated him. Not only would Marx not have supported the Eastern European regimes, but he would have welcomed their downfall.

But what did Karl Marx actually have to say? Was he in favour of dictatorship? Did he think that the state should impose dull uniformity, rigid regimentation and boring work on its citizens? Did he think that human nature and talents should be suppressed in the name of equality and altruism and for the benefit of a collectivity? No. In fact, Karl Marx's driving passion his whole life was the free development of the individual. Karl Marx was not opposed to the capitalist ideas of choice, liberty and individual freedom. He supported the ideas, but opposed the society that prevented them becoming a reality. He wanted to be able "to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic".

Marx had come to socialism via German philosophy becoming a socialist sometime in the winter of 1843-4 and only later interested himself in economics. Marx comments that during the course of his studies he reached the conclusion that the explanation of social development was not to be found merely in the realm of ideas but rather in the material conditions of life, and that a proper understanding of capitalism is to be found in economics. Capital, written in the 1850s and 60s, was in fact not published till 1867.

Marx became a socialist out of a moral objection to what money and the state were doing to human dignity, before he began his scientific study of capitalism and the working class. Marx stood for a society without class conflict, without State power and without monetary fetishism and that the abolition of capitalism is not mechanically inevitable, but can only come about as a result of a conscious choice by the working class; if they don't make this choice then capitalism will continue. Marx held that the working class should take political action to end politics and the state and that one of the forms this could take was democratic electoral action. Marx held that socialism could not be established unless a majority of workers had come to want and understand it.

“For the ultimate triumph of the ideas set forth in the Manifesto Marx relied solely and exclusively on the intellectual development of the working class, as it necessarily had to ensue from united action and discussion.” - Engels' Preface to the 1890 German edition of the Communist Manifesto
Marx analysed the social and economic system he lived under in methodical detail by starting from the very categories used by the bourgeois economists themselves: the commodity, the exchange of commodities and then, most important, the buying and selling of labour power, which is at the core of the system of wage-slavery, a system we still live under in 2013 throughout the world.

Marx solved the paradox of the origin of profit created in the production process. He did so by distinguishing labour from labour power. The latter is the worker’s ability to work for a given number of days, whereas simple labour is the work performed during this time. If you pay someone a wage of £500 per week, that is what they need to live on and carry on being fit for work. You have bought their labour power for the week. But they will be able to generate £500’s worth of value well before the week is over, and the surplus belongs not to them but to the employer. The basis of life under capitalism is the workers' sale of labour power to the employers, although this is not generally accepted as a true description of the world we live in. Marx, in a long, closely-reasoned analysis, has shown that this surplus is provided by the unpaid labour-power of the workers. Put into simple terms, this means that the wages of the worker are always less than the value of the articles he produces in the time covered by those wages. This is fully admitted in all business transactions, as no employer will engage a worker unless he can make the engagement "pay"—that is, unless he obtains a profit as a result of employing that worker.

Marx also correctly outlined:
1) the boom-slump cycle endemic to capitalism and how no government intervention—however benign—would be able to prevent it;

2) how the market economy would eventually spread its tentacles into every aspect of human life, conquering the entire planet in the process;

3) how an excess issue by governments of paper currency beyond that required by additional value production is the real cause of inflation;

4) class division and the modern development of a world economy where the division between the richest and the poorest is the widest in human history;

5) the growth of a colossal credit-based financial apparatus that, as time goes on, becomes increasingly isolated from the realities of the wealth production process which it depends.

The body of thought known as ‘Marxism’ comprises the labour theory of value, the materialist theory of history and the political theory of the class struggle. These are tools of analysis, which have been further developed and modified by socialists, to explain how the working class are exploited under capitalism and how world socialism will be the emancipation of our class. The validity of Marx’s theories is independent of Marx the man. Nonetheless, criticisms of Marx have been made because of the misinterpretations and distortions of Marxism that have occurred in the twentieth century. Marxism is not a dogma, not a record of the sayings and doings of Karl Marx to be carefully preserved and uncritically applied whatever the circumstances.

Marxism is a method of assessing what, at any particular time, is in the best interest of the working class and should be done to hasten the establishment of socialism. Marx's political activity to further the cause of Socialism was shaped by the conditions of his time. Marx was politically active in an age when capitalism had yet to become the dominant world system, economically or politically. This decisively shaped his political tactics. Since he believed that capitalism paved the way for Socialism and that it still had part of this work to do, he advocated that, in this circumstance, socialists ought to work not only for Socialism but also for the progress of capitalism at the expense of reactionary political and social forms. This involved Marx in supporting campaigns to establish political democracy or which he felt would have the effect of stabilizing or protecting it. So we find him supporting independence for Ireland in order to weaken the power of the English landed aristocracy, who were an obstacle to the development of political democracy in Britain, and Polish independence in order to set up a buffer state between Tsarist Russia and the rest of Europe so as to give political democracy a chance to develop there. Marx supported the establishment of centralized States in Germany and Italy as he felt this would allow a more rapid capitalist development in these countries; and he supported the North in the American Civil War since he felt that a victory for the slave-owning South would slow down the development of capitalism in America. In the circumstances of the time it seemed logical to Marx that he should accept that for the moment the workers' interests coincided with those of the bourgeois democrats, until such time as the absolutist regimes had been overthrown, and should then continue their struggle against the new bourgeois regimes. It was assumed that "the bourgeois democratic governments" could be placed in the situation of immediately losing "all backing among workers" (Marx's address to the Communist League, 1850).

These policies made certain sense at a time when capitalism had not yet fully created the material basis for Socialism as a means of hastening this. But once capitalism had done this then they became outdated and reactionary. In these changed circumstances, an application of the Marxist method showed that socialists need no longer help capitalism prepare the way for socialism — it now has accomplished this and so has become a completely reactionary social system—but should rather concentrate exclusively on encouraging the growth of socialist consciousness and organization amongst the working class.

The best tribute to Marx is to recognise what is permanent in his work and put aside that which was dictated by temporary circumstances of the time in which he wrote. Marx is beginning to once more figure in the discussion within the protest movements and hopefully will bring some grounding to this confusing diversity of protesters; the conscious recognition in this movement of the international nature of our adversary, capitalism and the awareness of the necessity of a global action against it.’

https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/search?q=Marx+tribute

SPGB Meeting TONIGHT Friday 14 March 1930 GMT ZOOM

 

HOW REALISTIC MUST THE SOCIALIST MODEL BE TO ACHIEVE SUPPORT FOR IT? (ZOOM)

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Event Details

• Date: March 14, 2025 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

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Speaker: Danny Vogel

This discussion will be around issues that emerge from, or are based in, a socialist’s tendency to leave the details of socialism to those who will be achieving it. This discussion is not about whether socialists should be creating blueprints, but rather whether at least some understanding of possible ways in which socialism could work would better enhance its ability to convince. It may be of course that socialists already feel sufficient confidence in ways socialism could work. The discussion will therefore explore the pros and cons of the hypothesis in the title.

To connect to a Zoom meeting, click https://zoom.us/j/7421974305

...You'd have to cry.

'Six days of the week it soils, With its sickening poison for paying a few bills, That’s out of proportion.'

Philip Larkin. Toads.

'We are told we do not work hard enough nor long enough.'

‘This is the Labour party. We believe in the dignity of work and we believe in the dignity of every worker, which is why I am not afraid to take the big decisions needed to return this country to their interests whether that’s on welfare, immigration, our public services or our public finances...

'Starmer said the current system was “discouraging people from working”.

The numbers of young people out of work meant “a wasted generation”, he said, with one in eight young people not in education, employment or training. “The people who really need that safety net [are] still not always getting the dignity they deserve.

“That’s unsustainable, it’s indefensible and it is unfair, people feel that in their bones,” he said. “It runs contrary to those deep British values that if you can work, you should. And if you want to work, the government should support you, not stop you.”'

Below is from the September 1923 issue of the Socialist Standard

'We are told we do not work hard enough nor long enough.

Unemployment, and the evils resulting from it, are said to be due to the fact that the workers will not work. Stagnation in business is supposed to be due to the workers’ dislike for work. This is the piffle continually coming from the master class and their agents. Facts, however, prove the contrary to be true. The more we work, the greater our poverty becomes; the more we work, the greater the wealth of the master class becomes. We look back into the past history of society and see that there was a time when the people were only able to produce sufficient for their subsistence; thus it was essential that all should work.

As recently as the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there was no such thing as unemployment through lack of work. Yet, in the days of feudalism, feudal slaves did not work so hard as wage slaves do to-day. Although working less, the people were better off; in recent times, though the workers work harder, poverty and its resultant evils have become greater. If we do not work hard, society would be short of the necessaries of life, ’tis said; but we know that food, clothing, shelter, and luxuries exist in great abundance.

The problem which the capitalist class cannot solve is how to dispose of the whole of the vast amount of goods produced. Factories, warehouses, stores, and shops are crowded with goods, and until these are sold, more will not be wanted. These goods can be bought with money only; money can be obtained by the workers only through working. Goods unsold mean no work for many; no work means no money. This state of affairs is brought about by overproduction, which proves that the workers have been working too much. But the irony of the position is that the workers, who have produced this vast wealth, are denied access to it. Why? Because it belongs to the capitalists. How have the latter gained control of this wealth? By robbing the producers. By this means the capitalist class have become the private owners of the means of living, i.e., factories, land, railways, etc., and they have made laws and raised armed forces to protect their property from the attacks of the workers.

Now, workers, you have the power to alter all this; you have the power to make life well worth living, by gaining control of the means of living. You have this power because the numbers of the working class far exceed those of the capitalist class. Riots, strikes, and bloody revolutions of the past have not given workers control of the means of living. To-day, these methods are still useless. But we have one method which is a sure method—the vote. To be able to use the vote to advantage requires knowledge. Workers, study Socialism, fight for Socialism, and bring about the Socialist Commonwealth which will free you from your chains and give a full and happy life to all.'

E. W. C.

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2018/09/work-1923.html