Socialist Standard April 2015 1 Contact Details SPGB Media: [email protected] socialist UK BRANCHES & CONTACTS Frankfi eld, Cork. Tel: 021 4896427. Email: [email protected] LONDON Newtownabbey : Nigel McCullough. North London branch . Meets 3rd Thursday Tel: 028 90852062. standard 8pm at Torriano Meeting House, 99 Torriano SCOTLAND Ave, NW5 2RX Edinburgh branch . Meets1st Thur. 7.00- Contact: [email protected] or 020 9.00pm. The Quaker Hall, Victoria Terrace APRIL 2015 7609 0983 (above Victoria Street), Edinburgh. South London branch . Meets 1st Tues. J. Moir. Tel: 0131 440 0995. 7.00pm. Head Offi ce. 52 Clapham High St, [email protected] Branch SW4 7UN. Tel: 020 7622 3811 website: contents West London branch . Meets 1st & 3rd Tues. http://geocities.com/edinburghbranch/ 8pm. Chiswick Town Hall, Heathfi eld Terrace Glasgow branch . Meets 3rd Wednesday of (corner Sutton Court Rd), W4. Corres: 51 each month at 8pm in Community Central FEATURES Gayford Road, London W12 9BY. Tel: 020 Halls, 304 Maryhill Road, Glasgow. Peter 8740 6677. Email: [email protected] Hendrie, 75 Lairhills Road, East Kilbride, Sugar - sweet for some 10 Glasgow G75 0LH. Tel: 01355 903105. Email: MIDLANDS [email protected]. The roots of Islam 12 West Midlands Regional branch . Meets last Dundee . Ian Ratcliffe, 12 Finlow Terrace Sunday of the month, 3.00pm, the Briar Rose Dundee, DD4 9NA, Tel 01382 698297 pub, 25 Bennetts Hill, Birmingham B2 5RE. Iconoclasm 16 (Check before attending). E-Mail:vincent. Kilmarnock .Meets last Thursday of month [email protected]. Tel:01242 675357 7pm-9pm at the Wheatsheaf pub (about 2 minutes from bus station). Paul Edwards. Tel: NORTHEAST 01563 541138. Email:rainbow3@btopenworld. Northeast branch . Contact: Vin Maratty, 22 com Greystoke Avenue, Sunderland, Tyne and Lothian Socialist Discussion @Autonomous Wear, SR2 9DS, tel: 01915 250 002. Email: Centre Edinburgh, ACE, 17 West Montgomery [email protected]. Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA. Meets 4th REGULARS Wednesday of each month 7.30-9.00pm. Tel: NORTHWEST F.Anderson 07724 082753. Pathfi nders 4 Lancaster branch . Meets fortnightly 8.30pm. P. Shannon, 10 Green Street, Lancaster WALES Halo Halo! 6 LA1 1DZ. Tel: 01524 382380 Email: spgb. Swansea branch . Meets 2nd Mon, 7.30pm, Cooking the Books 7 [email protected] Unitarian Church, High Street. Corres: Manchester branch . Paul Bennett, 6 Burleigh Geoffrey Williams, 19 Baptist Well Street, Material World 8 Mews, Hardy Lane, M21 7LB. Waun Wen, Swansea SA1 6FB. Tel: 0161 860 7189 Tel: 01792 643624 Greasy Pole 9 Bolton . Tel: H. McLaughlin. 01204 844589 Cardiff and District . Corres: Richard Cumbria . Brendan Cummings, 19 Queen St, Botterill, 21 Pen-Y-Bryn Rd, Gabalfa, Cardiff, Cooking the Books 18 Millom, Cumbria LA18 4BG CF14 3LG. Tel: 02920-615826 Email: Carlisle : Robert Whitfi eld. Email: robdotbob@ [email protected] Mixed Media 19 gmail.com Tel: 07906 373975 Llandudno Reviews 20 Rochdale . Tel: R. Chadwick. 01706 522365 Contact: Gareth Whitley - Email: gwhitley@ Southeast Manchester . Enquiries: Blanche hotmail.co.uk Proper Gander 21 Preston, 68 Fountains Road, M32 9PH INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS Meetings 22 YORKSHIRE Yorkshire Regional Branch: Richard Latin America . J.M. Morel, Calle 7 edif 45 50 Years Ago 23 Rainferd, tel: 01484 327468 apto 102, Multis nuevo La loteria, Voice from the Back [email protected] La Vega, Rep. Dominicana. 24 AFRICA Free Lunch 24 SOUTH /SOUTHEAST /SOUTHWEST Kenya . Patrick Ndege, PO Box 78105, Nairobi. Kent and Sussex Regional branch. Meets Swaziland . Mandla Ntshakala, PO Box 981, second Sunday every month at 2.00pm at The Manzini. Muggleton Inn, High Street, Maidstone ME14 Zambia. Kephas Mulenga, PO Box 280168, 1HJ. Kitwe. All original material is available under the Creative Email: [email protected] ASIA Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 UK: England & Tel: 07973 142701. Japan . Michael. Email: japan.wsm@gmail. Wales (CC BY-ND 2.0 UK) licence. South West Regional branch. Meets 2nd com Saturday of each month in the Railway AUSTRALIA Tavern, Salisbury, 2.00pm (check before Trevor Clarke, [email protected] The Socialist Party attending). Shane Roberts, 86 High Street, EUROPE 52 Clapham High Street, Bristol BS5 6DN. Tel: 0117 9511199 Denmark . Graham Taylor, Kjaerslund 9, fl oor London SW4 7UN Canterbury . Rob Cox, 4 Stanhope Road, Deal, 2 (middle), DK-8260 Viby J Tel : 0207 622 3811 Kent, CT14 6AB Germany . Norbert. Luton . Nick White, 59 Heywood Drive, LU2 E-mail: [email protected] Email: [email protected] 7LP Norway . Robert Stafford. Website : www.worldsocialism.org/spgb Redruth . Harry Sowden, 5 Clarence Villas, Email: [email protected] Blog: http://socialismoryourmoneyback. Redruth, Cornwall, TR15 1PB. Italy. Gian Maria Freddi, Via Felice Casorati blogspot.com/ Tel: 01209 219293 n. 6A, 37131 Verona Spain . Alberto Gordillo, Avenida del Parque EAST ANGLIA 2/2/3 Puerta A, 13200 Manzanares. SUBSCRIPTION ORDERS East Anglian Regional branch. Meets every should be sent to the address above. two months on a Saturday afternoon (see COMPANION PARTIES OVERSEAS RATES: One year subscription (normal rate) meetings page for details). £15. One year subscription (low/unwaged) £10. Pat Deutz, 11 The Links, Billericay, CM12 Europe rate £20 (Air mail). Rest of world £25 0EX. [email protected] Socialist Party of Canada/Parti Socialiste (Air mail). Voluntary supporters subscription David Porter, Eastholme, Bush Drive, Eccles- du Canada . Box 4280, Victoria B.C. V8X 3X8 £20 or more. Cheques payable to ‘The Socialist on-Sea, NR12 0SF. Canada. Party of Great Britain’. Tel: 01692 582533. Email:[email protected] Richard Headicar, 42 Woodcote, Firs Rd, World Socialist Party (India) 257 Baghajatin Hethersett, NR9 3JD. Tel: 01603 814343. ‘E’ Block (East), Kolkata - 700086, Tel: 033- The next meeting of the Executive Committee Cambridge . Andrew Westley, 10 Marksby 2425-0208, Email: [email protected] will be on Saturday 8 May at the address Close, Duxford, Cambridge CB2 4RS. World Socialist Party (New Zealand) P.O. above. Correspondence should be sent to Tel: 07890343044 Box 1929, Auckland, NI, New Zealand. the General Secretary. All articles, letters World Socialist Party of the United States and notices should be sent to the Editorial IRELAND P.O. Box 440247, Boston, MA 02144 USA. Committee. Cork : Kevin Cronin, 5 Curragh Woods, Email: [email protected]
2 Socialist Standard April 2015 Introducing The Socialist Party
The Socialist Party is like no other political to make new socialists. We publish ideas across, the more experiences we party in Britain. It is made up of people who pamphlets and books, as well as CDs, will be able to draw on and greater will be have joined together because we want to DVDs and various other informative the new ideas for building the movement get rid of the profi t system and establish material. We also give talks and take part which you will be able to bring us. real socialism. Our aim is to persuade in debates; attend rallies, meetings and The Socialist Party is an organisation of others to become socialist and act for demos; run educational conferences; equals. There is no leader and there are themselves, organising democratically host internet discussion forums, make no followers. So, if you are going to join and without leaders, to bring about the fi lms presenting our ideas, and contest we want you to be sure that you agree kind of society that we are advocating elections when practical. Socialist fully with what we stand for and that we in this journal. We are solely concerned literature is available in Arabic, Bengali, are satisfi ed that you understand the case with building a movement of socialists for Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, for socialism. socialism. We are not a reformist party Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and If you would like more details about with a programme of policies to patch up Turkish as well as English. The Socialist Party, complete and capitalism. The more of you who join The Socialist return the form on page 23. We use every possible opportunity Party the more we will be able to get our socialist standard APRIL 2015 Editorial There’s a general election coming
THERE WILL soon be a General Election in hundred years and, not surprisingly, this system Britain. We predict now with complete certainty therefore still exists, with all the same problems it that the Conservatives, Labour, Liberals, UKIP, has always generated. etc, and the Green Party, will all be standing on If you do not support this insane system of programmes of keeping – not ending – capitalism. global destruction and poverty then do not vote They will each dress it up differently, they will each for any of these politicians pretending to be able claim to have different priorities, values, intentions to tame the beast. The solution is production for and even policies. need, not profi t. Common ownership of productive But whichever ones succeed in getting the resources, not private or state ownership. Genuine power they seek, they will not really be in control. democracy, not the token democracy of one vote Their actions will be determined by the needs of twice a decade between versions of the same sick the market system which they accept, support, joke. endorse and seek to run. The market system At the heart of all our problems is the fact which exists to protect and increase the power and that a tiny handful of under 1 percent own and wealth of a tiny minority. control all of the world’s productive resources. It Ask any of them about a world without the is run for them. None of these parties, including capitalist system which is at the root of all of the Greens, Labour, Liberals, UKIP, etc as well our problems, and they will cry in chorus, ‘no! as Conservatives, has the slightest intention of it’s utopian! not possible! not now! maybe in ending that fact or even discussing it. We therefore a thousand years! we need to work within the have to laugh at them all with the derision they system! we can change and improve it from deserve and take steps to organise for a better within!’ They have been saying this for a couple of future.
Socialist Standard April 2015 3 Selling History By The Pound and that’s something Isis probably did learn correctly from history, theirs and ours, unlike some people who act in plays. YOU HAVE to hand it to Isis, in a way, for their orgiastic ability to outpace the world’s sense of shock-fatigue. Now they are Death Row Dispatches bulldozing cities and sites which are among the most ancient They might not be crucifying people or burning them at the in the world, sites like Nimrud, an Assyrian city dating from stake, but some American states are having trouble choosing 1250BC, and Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire and the ways to execute them, now that European pharmaceutical largest city in the world until it fell to a coalition of Babylonians, companies have almost unanimously grown a spine and refused Persians, Medes and Scythians. This at a time when Rome was to supply the US with lethal chemicals for use on Death Row still a village and western Europeans lived in hill-forts and hide inmates. Now Utah is proposing bringing back the fi ring squad, tents. despite liberal objections that it is an inhumane method of It turns out though that Isis have not simply gone insane murder (BBC Online, 11 March). Hmm, really? In Oklahoma with cultural bloodlust against anything un-Islamic. They are they’re considering using gas, a method with unpleasant canny operators in the capitalist marketplace. In public and on historical resonances. Well, we’ve got news for the liberals. camera, they are weighing into ancient statues and monuments All methods of murder are inhumane, by defi nition. It says with pick-axes and sledgehammers. Privately and away from something about liberals that this is even considered negotiable. view, they are looting archaeological sites and making a fortune selling artefacts to western collectors through a black market Nuts to Bosses administered by organised crime (New Scientist, 14 March). Here’s an idea what we can do in socialism with all those ex- With sculptures, mosaics and coins fetching anything up to aristocrats and ex-CEOs who remain narcissistically devoted to $60,000 a piece, it’s not hard to understand the incentive, and a their own self-importance. Such people will undoubtedly exist, bit of public vandalism is a very useful way to drive up black- and while the majority of us will just ignore them or, perhaps market prices. cruelly, laugh at them, some will fi nd it in their hearts to pity Any socialist the petty Napoleons, fl apping like fi sh out of water in a society comment that has no use for them. Assuming that they are addicted to would be power the way junkies are to smack, we must also assume that redundant. going cold turkey will be an unbearable torture for them. So how could we make it easier on them? Simple. Give them robot Let’s Get fl unkeys to order about. AI will make a terrifi c Jeeves to their Medi-evil Bertie Woosters, grovelling tastefully on cue and getting them That Isis out of all sorts of scrapes, thus saving the rest of us the trouble Palace of Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud are total of minding them. in 2007, bulldozed March 2015 unmitigated Think this is a joke? Just look at the behaviour of some of bastards these people today, like the lunatic executive of Korean Air who intent on clocking up crimes against humanity is hardly news, forced a plane to taxi back to the departure gate and worse, but nevertheless some liberals, ever cautious when faced forced an air steward to kneel in front of her and receive a with absolute statements of any sort, are tempted to look humiliating barrage of vilifi cation over a stupid bag of nuts ( BBC for mitigating factors. In an interview with the cast of BBC’s Online, 11 March). If businesses in South Korea are really run Tudor drama Wolf Hall, one actor observed that Islam was by preening princesses like her, and workers put up with it, it approximately 500 years behind Christianity in terms of age, makes you understand how the North Korean junta gets away and that if one were to look 500 years or so backwards in with it. Happily though the steward didn’t put up with it, and sued English history, what were we doing to each other then? The for damages. Even more happily, the executive ended up in jail, answer: beheading, burning, hanging, drawing and quartering. though for obstructing aviation safety rather than for behaving The intention of this observation was not to excuse Isis as like an arrogant tit. such, but merely to provide some sort of historical context. The So, no reason for the likes of Stephen Hawking to fear that unfortunate effect, though, was to patronise the great majority AI is going to kill us all in a Terminator-like Armageddon. Just of western Moslems who are quite at home with modern values, get the robots to wear morning suits and eat lots of fi sh, and the thanks very much, and don’t appreciate being described by well- world’s ex-bosses can be kept in delusional bliss while the rest meaning white actors as medieval barbarians. of us get on with the important matters of life. It’s a silly argument anyway. The post-Columbian United States is around 1,500 years younger than Christianity, so on We Dream of Gini this logic American policy-makers should still be crucifying Socialists are always looking for ways to make the case simpler, people, sacrifi cing goats and reading the future in chicken guts. and here’s one approach we haven’t tried before: Object: to set The reality is that societies don’t necessarily develop at the the Gini coeffi cient to zero. It’s fi fty years since Italian statistician same rate nor independently of each other. Ideas don’t stop Corrado Gini devised his index for measuring inequality, which at frontiers and societies at different stages of development charts the distribution of income in any given society, deriving a are forever cross-fertilising each other – that’s why we think number between zero, where everybody earns the same, and socialism will spread geometrically and not serially. As for what one, where all the income is earned by just one person (BBC ‘we’ did to each other in Tudor England, it was no different from Online, 12 March). The zero fi gure is entirely putative, since no behaviour across the whole of ‘civilised’ Europe at the time. capitalist society would or could ever fi x all incomes as equal, When these forms of behaviour later came to be regarded as and in fact the only real way to achieve this ultimate equality brutal, they fell out of favour in all related societies. would be to abolish incomes and the wages system altogether For an interesting historical account of the birth of Islam, see – which is one defi nition of socialism. Capitalism’s logical end page 12 in this issue. Isis are out of step with modern times and point is similarly obvious, whether any capitalists care to admit modern ethical values not because they are somehow psycho- it or not: to set the Gini coeffi cient to 1. That such an outcome historically underdeveloped but because they have a calculated is not only undesirable and unsustainable but in fact globally and steely resolve to scare the living shit out of everyone they suicidal ought to be glaringly obvious to any schoolchild, and meet. As a strategy of terror you just can’t beat biblical brutality, never mind the political sophistries. PJS
4 Socialist Standard April 2015 where you are? You probably have almost no Let’s stand together for say in any of these issues which have a big a better world effect on you. But what can you do about it? Those who benefi t from the present Ever felt voting was a waste of time? system would have you believe there is no alternative. It helps them if you believe Usually, this is true, because the big parties it – although it does nothing for you. support the current system. They change a few laws, shift money around; but in the end You don’t have to believe you are powerless. profi ts always come fi rst and those on top stay If you choose not to support this any more on top. and vote socialist you will be one of an increasing number questioning the system. Is this the only way? We can put space You will be signalling your consent to a world probes onto comets, restore sight to the blind cooperative society where wealth is produced and perform triple heart bypass operations: and owned in common and freely shared we have the brains to sort out a better according to need. A truly democratic society system, one where we will be producing to where decisions are made for the common satisfy people’s needs not for profi t, where no good rather than for the gain of vested one has to live in poverty while an elite are business interests. Where you have as much wealthy beyond imagining. say as the next person regardless of position in life or occupation. The Socialist Party believes in a society of cooperation, in helping each other, not We have seen the world over that when an exploiting our neighbours. We believe that idea has the support of the majority of the power should be shared, not in the hands of population, nothing can stop it. To send a a greedy few. signal that you want this, vote for the Socialist Party candidate, and then come and join us, Who controls how much you are paid, where not to mend the current system but to build a you work, when you work or even if you work? movement strong enough to end it. Who decides how much it costs you to live
Our General Election campaign The Socialist Party will be standing ten candidates in the coming general election, more than we have ever put up before. Half a million leafl ets will be distributed in total in the chosen constituencies, which are:
Brighton Kemptown: Jacqueline Shodeke Islington North: Bill Martin Brighton Pavilion: Howard Pilott Oxford East: Kevin Parkin Canterbury: Robert Cox Oxford West & Abingdon: Mike Foster Easington: Steve Colborn Swansea West: Brian Johnson Folkestone & Hythe: Andy Thomas Vauxhall: Danny Lambert
If you wish to help out in the campaign email us at [email protected] or phone 0207 622 3811 or text (only) 07732 831 192. We will put you in touch with the local branch election committee.
If you wish to help fi nancially please make any cheque out to ‘The Socialist Party of Great Britain’ and send to 52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UN. Alternatively, you can use Paypal (go to our website www.worldsocialism.org and scroll down to the bottom). Electoral law compels us to check and record any donations of over £50 but not for those of £50 or less.
Socialist Standard April 2015 5 Megachurch Pastor Tells Oprah the Church Is “Moments Away” From Embracing Gay Marriage’. … ‘3 Reasons You Must Not See Fifty Shades Of Grey’. … ‘I Witnessed Men With Size 13 and 14 Shoes Kissing Each Other’. A selection of well-balanced articles there, clearly making the Born in Sin … or Living in Fantasy? point that Jesus loves you. Now, what can the Charisma News add to that? THERE’S ONLY one thing worse than being cornered in How about –‘Evil Empire: The 10 Plagues, Islam and the the pub by a drunk Sun reader who insists on explaining, in Judgement of God’. … ‘Psychopathic Porn: The X-Rated detail, his personal analysis of the weakness in the defence at Path of Destruction’. … ‘9 Prophetic Keys For Binding the Arsenal’s last away game, together with the meaning of life and Homosexual Spirit’. … ‘Have You Committed the Unpardonable his recommendations for dealing with ISIS; and that’s being Sin? … ‘Pop Evil Rocker Casts Demon Out of Brother’. ... cornered by a bible thumper who recognises you as someone ‘Sex Traffi cking Expert Has 5 Alarming Concerns About ‘Fifty who needs, urgently, to be assured that Jesus is your Lord and Shades of Grey’. … ‘Franklin Graham Speaks Bluntly About Saviour. Transgender Bathrooms’. At least with the Sun reader it’s obvious, right from the start, Having digested these, and now safely in the arms of Jesus, what he is. He doesn’t kick off by exchanging pleasantries about you may now like to add: ‘Jeb Bush to M ake Case for Stronger the weather and then start introducing Jesus into each sentence U.S. Role in World’. And don’t miss ‘Dilemma for Jeb: How Bush after twenty seconds. With the Sun reader you make allowance 3 Would Deal With Iraq’. for the fact that the images tumbling around in his brain, formed Ah well, it could be worse. At least it’s not just pointless by years of exposure to page 3 and lurid accounts of the private tabloid sex and violence is it? Oh, hang on … lives of footballers and models, will transform themselves into a NW stream of verbiage which can then be gushed out to explain any topic under discussion. With the born-again believer it’s more diffi cult. What explanation is there for their surreal view of the world? OK, they may also be Sun readers which won’t help, but what other nightmares shape the fantasies of the self-confessed ‘sinner’? What is it that makes them ashamed of being human, convinced that their only purpose in life is to prepare for another, future one, in which an invisible tyrant will reward, or punish them, for every thought or action taken now? This month we’re taking you on a guided tour of a bible- thumper’s brain, or rather the ideas on which it is fed, courtesy of a couple of religious websites. Fasten your seat belts and hold on tight: First, the titles of a selection of articles showing what’s important to Christian Post readers: ‘Muslims Will Continue Beheading Non-Believers Until Jesus Slays the Antichrist’. … ‘If Islamic Terrorists Are Devout Muslims, Why Are They Hooked On Porn?’… ‘This Pastor Chose Against Acting on His Same-Sex Attractions’. … ‘Former
6 Socialist Standard April 2015 PUBLICATIONS ORDER FORM
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Squeeze the rich? An Inconvenient Question: Socialism and The Environment...... £2.00 x____
‘TAX THE Rich’ is a popular slogan on the populist Left. What’s Wrong With Using Parliament?...... £1.00 x____ ‘For progressive tax on rich corporations and individuals and an end to tax avoidance’ is one of the promises Ecology and Socialism...... £1.00 x____ in the Trotskyist front organisation TUSC’s election manifesto. Further down the pyramid at constituency From Capitalism to Socialism: how we live and how we could live....£1.00 x____ level this is simplifi ed to ‘Stop the cuts: tax the super- Africa: A Marxian Analysis...... £1.50 x____ rich’ and ‘Tax the 1%’. Another Left populist candidate,
Nick Long, standing for the Lewisham People Before Socialism As a Practical Alternative...... £1.00 x____ Profi t party, wrote to the Morning Star (4 February): ‘Taxing the super rich and getting tax-dodging Some Aspects of Marxian Economics...... £2.00 x____ corporations to pay their taxes can bring about an end to austerity.’ How the Gods Were Made...... £1.50 x____ But would it? Could it . . ? Marxism and Darwinism by Anton Pannekoek...... £1.50 x____ The rich, especially the super-rich, can certainly afford to pay more tax. Even the arguments put by their How we Live and How we Might Live by William Morris...... £1.50 x____ apologists don’t deny this. They concentrate on arguing that they shouldn’t be taxed too much, that if they were The Right to be Lazy and other articles by Paul Lafargue...... £2.00 x____ they’d move abroad or would no longer be prepared to work for capitalist fi rms in Britain. This would happen Marxism Revisited...... £2.00 x____ to some extent but confi rms that capitalism is a world Socialist Principles Explained...... £2.00 x____ system and that any solution to the problem is not to be found at national level. But the fact remains that the rich are rich enough to pay more tax out of their huge All the above pamphlets (25% discount)...... £15.00 x____ incomes and piles of accumulated wealth. Would making them pay more tax end austerity? BOOKS Austerity is the government cutting back on its spending Strange Meeting: Socialism and World War One...... £4.50 x____ so as to reduce the burden of taxation on profi ts in a slump as a way to help a profi t-led recovery (the only A Socialist Life by Heather Ball...... £3.75 x____ way a recovery can come about). Increasing taxes on ‘rich corporations and individuals’ would allow the Are We Prisoners Of Our Genes?...... £4.75 x____ government not to have to cut its spending so much, Socialism Or Your Money Back (reduced from £9.95)...... £4.00 x____ but if more than a one-off would prove to be counter- productive. All the above books and pamphlets (25% discount)...... £20.00 x____ The incomes of the rich come in the end, one way or the other, out of profi ts. Not all of it is spent on DVD conspicuous consumption (in fact that’s against the Capitalism and Other Kids’ Stuff...... £5.75 x_____ logic of capital accumulation, which is what capitalism is all about). Most is saved and so comes to be re- Poles Apart? Capitalism or socialism as the planet heats up...... £5.75 x_____ invested in production to make further profi ts, a part of which will provide their future unearned incomes. TOTAL ...... £______So taxing the rich is in the end a tax on profi ts. This is obvious in the case of taxes on ‘rich corporations’. Corporation tax used to be called ‘profi ts tax’ and that’s All prices include postage and packing. For six or more of any publication, what it still is: a direct tax on profi ts. As capitalism is reduce the price by one third. a profi t-driven system anything that reduces profi ts or makes profi t-making more diffi cult will bring about an Return this form along with your cheque or money order to: economic downturn. In a slump, as at present, it would The Socialist Party of Great Britain, FREEPOST, London, SW4 delay any recovery. 7BR, United Kingdom. Since you can’t tax the rich unless the rich continue (No postage necessary if mailed within the UK) to exist and continue to draw a taxable unearned income, i.e. unless capitalism continues to exist, TUSC NAME...... and the other Left populists who chant ‘Tax the Rich’ are proposing the old failed reformist policy that the ADDRESS...... Labour Party used to espouse of redistributing income ...... from profi ts to workers, but not even to try to improve workers’ conditions but merely to try to stop them ...... getting worse. City...... It won’t work. In promoting the idea that it could, they are peddling the same sort of empty and unrealisable ...... Postcode...... promises as the conventional politicians. The fact is that County...... capitalism cannot be reformed to work in the interests of the wage and salary-earning working class and their PHONE (optional)...... dependants. The only way out is to replace capitalism – with its division into rich and the rest – altogether. E-MAIL (optional)......
Socialist Standard April 2015 7 Body P a r t s
Lambs to the slaughter... IN CAPITALISM, anything can be sold for a profi t, including they are likely to face in respect to the possible incapacity human beings. The sickening trades in humans whether as to resume their normally physically demanding jobs. Organ bonded labour or sex slaves is still prevalent. Selling body brokers have told them the fairy tale of ‘the sleeping kidney’: parts is now a normal everyday business. Organs Watch one kidney sleeps, the other kidney works, so people don’t need conservatively estimates that at least 10,000 kidneys are sold two kidneys. Doctors wake up the sleeping kidney and take each year and generates an illicit profi t of around a billion away the old kidney to give it to the recipient. Those selling their dollars a year. Organ traffi cking is the commercialisation of kidneys often receive more invasive surgery than necessary medicine: more transplants mean more profi t. Everything that is because buyers want to avoid extra expense. Many donors happening is a ‘donation’, but in real life, it is selling and buying. will have unnecessarily long scars of about 15 to 20 inches on This buying and selling transplant organs is illegal almost their bodies, not knowing that if the brokers or recipients paid everywhere yet the trade persists, as a result of two major fl aws just a little bit more, the surgeons could have used laparoscopic in the transplant system, according to experts. First, the law surgery, which requires an incision as small as 3 or 4 inches. does not prohibit anyone from billing for the services involved in Doctors say a kidney operation is a routine procedure; it transplanting organs. This provides doctors and hospitals with saves a life and there is no harm to the donors. The whole a fi nancial incentive to perform transplants, while the costs of recruitment of donors is a package of deception, manipulating the organ are absorbed into the larger transaction and easily the uneducated poor. The middlemen beyond taking large hidden from view. The second fl aw is the practice of making profi ts, encourage the trade by assuring buyers that the organ donation anonymous. You can buy an organ without transaction is conducted ethically and that the medical benefi ts knowing where it came from, and it thus becomes mere tissue justify what would otherwise be seen as exploitation. rather than part of a human being. Anonymity does not merely ‘The crimes are covered up,’ Scott Carney writes in his book dehumanise donors; it also endangers them by making it easier The Red Market ‘in a veil of altruistic ideals.’ Carney estimates for buyers and brokers to escape accountability for deaths and he is personally worth $250,000 if he was sold for body parts. injuries. ‘. . . bodies are unquestionably commodities . . . As a product, The organ trade follows a clear pattern: rich people buy bodies aren’t assembled new in factories fi lled with sterile suited the organs, and poor people sell them. Organ traffi cking workers; rather they are harvested like used cars at scrap depends on several factors. One is people in distress. They are markets. Before you can write a check and pick up human economically disadvantaged. On the demand side are people tissue, someone needs to transform it from a tiny piece of who could die if they don’t receive an organ transplant. Then humanity into something with a market value . . .’ there are the well-connected organ brokers, who arrange the There are those who will say ‘so what?’ And in a world where deals between sellers and buyers. Well-equipped clinics and money can buy anything, and everything is fair game for profi t- medical staff are needed. Unlike other forms of traffi cking, the makers, what’s to stop people from turning human parts into organ trade unites the respectable from the highest levels of another commodity? In a world that is governed by the principle society, such as laboratory technicians and the surgeons with of supply and demand, where those with money can buy the disreputable of the lowest strata of society – con-men and anything, the inevitable result is a world in which rich recipients criminals, those brutal enforcers who make sure that ‘willing’ look for markets where they can buy body parts. The sad reality sellers actually lie on the operating table once it is realised by is that some poor person somewhere in the world will be forced them what is actually entailed and they begin to understand how to sell. they have been cheated. Capitalism can indeed be described as being vampire-like, Few are informed or educated enough to give consent. They sucking the life out of the poor, imagery often used by Marx. do not comprehend the seriousness of the surgery or what ALJO
8 Socialist Standard April 2015 Goodbye (?) to all these
WE ARE close now to that fi rst as a Conservative in the safest of seats at Witney minute or two at the ballot (now represented by none other than David Cameron) boxes when we have an and then, after being sacked from the Front Bench for opportunity to state what we voting against instructions on Clause 28, as a Labour think of the capitalist social MP. It might have been expected that he would do system and its wars, famine, and diseases amidst its what in the Commons is regarded as the decent thing class privileges. Nationally the voting papers will be and resign to fi ght a by-election under his new colours missing some famous names. Like Sir Peter (‘my biggest (like the two recent defectors to UKIP) but he chose to mistake in politics was to listen to Mrs Thatcher’) Tapsell, ignore the pressures from his former colleagues and was the Father Of The House. And like Austin (‘... even if we rewarded by Labour’s leadership with the candidature for selected a raving alcoholic sex paedophile we wouldn’t St. Helens South in the 2001 election. This was rather lose Grimsby’) Mitchell. So where, among this confusion, different from Witney, for St. Helens was still suffering can we fi nd Aidan Burley (pictured) the MP (for a short from the closure of its coal mines and regularly ran up while yet) for Cannock Chase where in 2010 he clocked Labour majorities of well over 20,000. For Woodward in up the country’s biggest swing –– of 14 percent – to the 2001 it fell to under 9,000. But Tony Blair was delighted, Tories and who is such good pals with David Cameron regarding this recruit as evidence of New Labour’s appeal, that they are compelled to greet each other with a a kind of paragon ‘…clever, articulate...economically and High Five whenever they meet to discuss how they socially liberal...genuine’ (he did not mention that he was are straightening out the kinks in British capitalism. also very rich). The lower benches were less exuberant; Burley is 36 and since arrival in the Commons he has Chris Mullen, representing a Sunderland seat, was been a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee pretty blunt: ‘...one of New Labour’s vilest stitch-ups and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Ministry of ... made my fl esh creep’ and on another occasion ‘The Transport. But it has not been all easy going for him. awful Shaun Woodward, his every word a sneer’ while on the opposite benches Michael Heseltine forecast that Nazi Chants Woodward would ‘... soon become a dot on the horizon’. During his time as a Among this passion of outrage and mockery in 2007 student at Oxford he Gordon Brown elevated Woodward to Northern Ireland managed to fi t in his Secretary. studies of theology with involvement in an ‘incident’ Sainsbury on a dance fl oor which Now that Woodward is leaving the Commons, he will led to his being ejected probably have to sell his modest house in St Helens, from his St. John’s College leaving him with the choice of six other homes in places accommodation. Another such as the Hamptons and Mustique, which vary in event contributed to his price up to about £7 million. He is married to Camilla decision – or perhaps his Davan Sainsbury from the family who have made their surrender to pressure fortune through fl ogging supermarket food to the wage from outside – to stand class in society. Sainsburys are unlikely to be supplying down from Parliament. refreshments to the monthly meetings of the Sybil Club of In December 2011 he which Woodward is a founder member. The club was set organised a stag party for a up with the objective of its members gorging themselves friend – Old Etonian Mark on food and drink in honour of ‘interesting’ MPs. As Fournier – at a crowded an example of a particularly ‘interesting’ meeting, one posh restaurant in a French member described an evening at one of Woodward’s ski resort. The slim chances London houses closing with them all ‘completely that this would be a happy, stupefi ed’ but relieved that Woodward had a butler who peaceable celebration were would feed the parking meter in the morning. not realized when Fournier Not all of the MPs leave the Commons willingly, arrived in a black Nazi SS uniform – arranged by Burley congratulating themselves on a job well done. Two of – which he fl aunted full face to the camera. The guests them – Ann MacIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) and Tim Yeo enlivened the evening with Nazi salutes and chants of (South Suffolk) have been deselected – a polite word for ‘Mein Fuhrer, Himmler, Eichmann’. When it was time kicked out – by the popular vote of their constituency for toasts Burley was among those raising a glass to ‘... members. Eric Joyce (Falkirk) transformed himself from and if we’re perfectly honest, to the ideology and thought Labour to Independent after initiating some drunken process of the Third Reich’. Unluckily for him and his punch-ups in the House of Commons bar. Then there are gruesome mates their behaviour was reported in The Mail those whose motives we may speculate about because On Sunday. There was an internal enquiry by the Tory they are The Disappointed Ones, who once nursed an Party at which Burley denied his active participation but ambition to be their Party Leader. Like Andrew Lansley the evidence proved otherwise. Cameron had to face the (South Cambridgeshire) and Hazel Blears (Salford inevitable and remove his incautious friend from the job and Eccles). In this company William Hague is best as a PPS. A French Court fi ned Fournier the equivalent of left unremarked. All of them endured by virtue of the £1250. delusion that they represented a remedy for the chaos and vanity of capitalist politics. Like all those who by St. Helens some means remain as our Parliamentary rulers. None of Aidan Burley’s fragmented political career is not them will be missed. typical of the MPs who are leaving the Commons this IVAN May. Shaun Woodward was fi rst elected in 1997, at
Socialist Standard April 2015 9 Sugar - Sweet for Some
A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down’, sang the angelic Julie ‘Andrews to a pair of wide-eyed children in the movie Mary Poppins. Julie’s advice must have enthralled the sugar industry, and set the hearts of marketers everywhere fl uttering. Children as consumers represent a massive global market, and spearheading capitalism’s drive for the minds and money of children is the sugar and related sweeteners industry. At stake is an estimated global market projected for 2017 at $97.2 billion. A large slice of the forthcoming profi ts will be pocketed by the Fanjul Brothers, owners of Fanjul Corp, ‘which in 2010 there at a supermarket shelf and one though Governor Neil Abercrombie had comprised four raw sugar mills and product is 10p cheaper than the other, pushed the proposed levy… PepsiCo 10 refi neries in six countries, making would it help you to think – Well, I’ll go Inc., Coca-Cola Co. and the American them the world’s largest refi ner of cane for the non-sugary one?’ Wollaston, a Beverage Association have spent as sugar, producing 6 million tons of sugar onetime GP, also posed an ideological much as $70 million on lobbying and annually’ (en.wikipedia.org/). question in a sugarcoated Mary Poppins- issuing ads… Efforts to enact such levies Perhaps even Mary Poppins would like way when she asked: ‘Are there ways have foundered in 30 states’. Judith have baulked at administering 20 we can take calories out of children’s Phillips, a Mississippi State University spoonfuls of sugar in one go, but not diets in ways that doesn’t feel like a big research analyst who studied the Sainsburys. Their Orange Energy Drink nanny bossy state coming in with a big issue for lawmakers, summed up how has, ‘5.9g per 100 ml of sugar – which stick’ (3 February)? Something tells me things generally work under capitalism: is the equivalent of 20 teaspoons for that the naughty corporations aren’t going ‘Whoever is loudest tends to control the every 500ml’. As ever there are reformers to have to take any nasty medicine, even discussion and, generally speaking, you demanding activity. In February, Action on from those who supposedly wield a big buy your microphone with money’ (13 Sugar, ‘has called for the sale of ‘energy’ stick. March, 2012). and sports drinks to youngsters to be The Guardian reported that, ‘an banned. They also ‘warned that children investigation by the British Medical Addictive were being duped into thinking that the Journal revealed that health offi cials Action on Sugar suggests that sugar products would boost their performance and ministers had 130 meetings with could be addictive. Dr. David Reuben, on the sports fi eld or at school’ and alcohol and supermarket lobbyists author of Everything You Always Wanted that, ‘The products served no purpose while they were considering imposing to Know About Nutrition agrees: ‘White whatsoever except to make children a minimum price per unit of alcohol. refi ned sugar is not a food. It is a pure addicted to caffeine and habituated to The proposal was dropped in July, chemical extracted from plant sources, sugars, it claimed, while in the longer allegedly because of a lack of concrete purer in fact than cocaine, which it term they were fuelling the obesity evidence’. Protecting corporate profi ts resembles in many ways. Its true name epidemic’ (theguardian.com /26 February). through political connections is nothing is sucrose and its chemical formula is Even doting parent and thoughtful new. ‘In 1979, Margaret Thatcher set C12H22O11... The chemical formula Prime Minister David Cameron disclosed up the National Advisory Committee on for cocaine is C17H21NO4... For all to Parliament how he was ‘trying to stop Nutrition Education, chaired by Professor practical purposes, the difference is ‘excessive’ amounts of Coca-Cola being Philip James, a powerhouse in the drive that sugar is missing the ‘N’, or nitrogen consumed in the Cameron household’ to improve diet. It produced a seminal atom... Through heating and mechanical (Daily Mail.co.uk, 16 January, 2013). report, suppressed until it was leaked in and chemical processing, all vitamins, This admission, albeit two years later, 1983, that warned the British diet was minerals, proteins, fats, enzymes and seemed to resonate with Tory MP connected to the major diseases of our indeed every nutrient is removed until Sarah Wollaston, chair of the Health time. Its targets to reduce sugar, fat and only the sugar remains... During the Select Committee, when she confi ded salt were ignored’ (12 February, 2014). refi ning process, 64 food elements are to BuzzFeed News that she and her And in the U.S Bloomberg’s reported destroyed. All the potassium, magnesium, committee wanted to ask experts if it that, ‘Hawaii lawmakers killed a proposed calcium, iron, manganese, phosphate, would, ‘work if we had a price differential tax that would have added 17 cents and sulfate are removed. The A, D, and between sugary carbonated drinks and to a single-serve bottle of soda. It B, vitamins are destroyed. Amino acids, unsugary ones, low sugar? So if you’re was the second failed attempt, even vital enzymes, unsaturated fats, and all
10 Socialist Standard April 2015 fi ber are gone. To a lesser or greater state power in their interest’. Straight bring in thousands of migrant workers, degree, all refi ned sweeteners such as from an arsehole’s mouth comes this mostly from Jamaica, to cut their cane... corn syrup, maple syrup, etc., undergo truism: ‘No one’s really worrying about Only the desperately poor cut cane similar destructive processes... Studies what it [advertising to children] is teaching and, without the farmworkers program, show that ‘sugar’ is just as habit-forming impressionable youth. Hey, I’m in the the Fanjuls may not have been able to as any narcotic; and its use, misuse, business of convincing people to buy harvest their fi elds. In the Fanjul fi elds, and abuse is our nation’s number one things they don’t need’ - an advertising workers who did not cut fast enough disaster’ (macrobiotics.co.uk/ 3 March). executive, in Business Week, August 11, were labeled ‘Code One’, which means So too thinks Robert Lustig, the 1997, quoted by Richard Robbins’ (www. ‘refused to work – do not rehire’. Code University of California’s professor of globalissues.org/article/237). One workers were sent home’. paediatrics who is, ‘well-known for his In 1974, sugar prices rocketed and, research into the effects of dietary sugar. Enough is not enough inevitably, overproduction resulted. He believes that sugar is addictive. In Advertisers are simply the unimaginative But, help was at hand for the kings of a recent interview he said: ‘There are lackeys for an elite that includes people sugar: ‘The government rushed to their fi ve tastes on your tongue: sweet, salty, such as the Fanjul brothers. They’re aid, and the current sugar program of sour, bitter and umami. Sugar covers fourth generation sugar capitalists. Their government subsidies and price supports up the other four, so you can’t taste great grandfather was reportedly the took hold. The government guaranteed the negative aspects of foods. You can wealthiest man in Cuba. Under Batista’s to sugar farmers a price double that of make dog poop taste good with enough dictatorship life was uncomplicated the world market and placed quotas on sugar’. Lustig goes on to reveal that, for the family. The profi ts built off of sugar imports. Such a policy produces ‘table sugar known as sucrose, which the backs of their workers rolled in. a windfall for the Fanjuls at the expense is a made of two sugars (glucose and Extravagant parties were thrown for other of American taxpayers’ (eyeonmiami. fructose) chemically bound to each other, parasites like the Duke and Duchess of blogspot.co.uk, 29 May, 2010). is identical to high fructose corn syrup Windsor, but in 1958 Castro overthrew For capitalists ‘enough’ doesn’t exist – which he describes as a chronic toxin’ Batista’s dictatorship under the guise in their vocabulary. ‘According to the (Independent, 4 October 2014). of socialism. The Fanjul’s sugar empire U.S. Department of Labor (2010), Like the wolf eying the lambs, children was seized and Castro now luxuriates in sugar is produced with forced labor in are viewed as a primary target for the one of the family’s palatial mansions in Bolivia, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, sugar industry. Spinning lies to them is Havana. Under capitalism the narrative Myanmar (Burma) and Pakistan and with accomplished by just a few multi-billion repeats ad nauseam: The old king’s dead child labor in Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, the dollar advertising corporations. As Juliet - long live the new king. Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Kenya, Schor writes, ‘These corporations not Palm Beach, Florida, welcomed the Mexico, Myanmar, Pakistan, Panama, the only have enormous economic power, Fanjuls and their money which was Philippines and Uganda’. but their political infl uence has never quickly re-invested in land, plant and How much medicine you, your children been greater. They have funneled labour enabling a speedy return to and grandchildren have to swallow from unprecedented sums of money to political capital accumulation. Hungry labour the Fanjuls and their class is up to you. parties and offi cials... The power wielded usually returns fatter profi ts so the Life couldn’t be sweeter for them - and it’s by these corporations is evident in many Fanjul brothers were quick to exploit at your expense. ways, from their ability to eliminate the US governments H-2 foreign worker ANDY MATTHEWS competitors to their ability to mobilize programme, enabling, ‘the Fanjuls to
Sugar cane plant, Madagascar
Socialist Standard April 2015 11 The Roots of Islam Groups of Islamic proselytes with trestle tables piled with books and pamphlets is a common sight on our streets these days. They join the ranks of those trying to win workers over to their ideas. Occasionally, they might even maintain that Islam is an anti-capitalist idea. They are right, it is, but not in a good way.
Aerial Empire. Within Arabia proper, most view of slam as an idea traces its roots people lived lives dominated by clan Mecca back to the specifi c social and tribes, without a central state, Irelations of 7th century Arabia. where custom and the threat of At that time the Arabian peninsula vendetta regulated social life. was in the shadow of two great There was a basic division between monotheistic empires: Rome and groups of sedentary Arabs, who Persia. Monotheistic ideas had practised agriculture (usually suited their social arrangements, herding animals or growing dates), since by their nature these empires and the Bedouin, who moved across dissolved local tribal bonds, and the desert either raiding or offering subordinated everyone to an protection to the agriculturalists. emperor far away. Often relations between groups were Both the deserts of Arabia, and its managed by the prestige of holy position between the two empires men, at sites of sanctuary, known meant that neither completely as haram, often on the borders of dominated it. At this time, as in rival territories. The city of Mecca Europe with Goths, Vandals and was founded at such a site, and the Germans, the nomadic Arabs had market there grew up under the wandered to the borders of the auspices of the neutral territory. Roman Empire, and in some cases Within these spaces, the holy man settled and been assimilated, or might also be called upon to settle used as mercenary troops for the disputes, and this gave him power.
12 Socialist Standard April 2015 This status could be passed on of Medina’s strategic location), and through a family line, though it this led to a series of battles in still required the requisite religious which Muhammad proved (generally) achievements in order to maintain triumphant, and demonstrated it. Other groups could muscle their that he and his inner circle were way in, and take the prestigious competent military commanders. site and offi ce over. A man named Muhammad also began a process Qusayy, and his tribe, the Quraysh of taking control of Medina, through took over the haram of Mecca in the a series of strategic strikes against 6th century, and it was under their other clans and factions in the city, control, largely, that the city grew and through the assassination of up. This city thus was not based on political enemies. The signifi cant natural resources, and was entirely change that Islam made was that the dependent on trade and its position Muslims would protect each other Pre-Islamic Sphinx — part of Arabian on trade routes for its existence. mythology, c 1st - 2nd century CE, Jordan across clan and tribal lines. This Muhammad was born into this was its attraction to members of tribe, and thus into its religious established dominant groups reacted weaker clans, and part of its success prestige, albeit through a clan, the by trying to suppress his movement. in Medina, as none dare retaliate Hashims, which was in declining There had been a recent (failed) bid against the targeted killing. status within the tribe. This to establish a man as king, so clearly Additionally, he instituted a marginalised status was compounded there was political instability, and the principle of charity among the in his case, when he was orphaned at growing city was undermining the old Muslim community. All members an early age, leaving him dependent clan-based system. were expected to contribute, and upon his uncle, and the clan at Muhammad must have had a Muhammad administered the fund large. He managed to marry well, to substantial reputation as a wise to support poorer members. Non- a wealthy widow older than himself, head, since he was invited to Muslims were taxed. The society and spent many years in trade. It is another city, Medina, where he was that the Muslims established did almost certain that he encountered asked to function as a mediator. not have a state: indeed, it was Christians and Jews as part of his He emigrated there, taking his close to some anarchist utopias: a travels, and may have learned some followers with him. Medina was a “natural leader” mediated disputes, of their ideas. city composed of various groups, while individuals owned their own He earned a reputation for probity, including Jewish tribes, and he may property and were free to do as they and he must have been possessed have been hoping to recruit his fellow pleased. Muhammad acted as chief, of a degree of piety, going into the monotheists to his cause (however persuading followers to join him in desert to pray. It was there, when they rejected his religious advances). war, and showing largess with the he was in his forties, that he fi rst Having no means of subsistence in wealth he accumulated through his heard God speaking to him. His Medina, the Muslims fell to robbing one fi fth share of the booty. voice of god is a matter of dispute. Meccan desert caravans. This was a The Islam of Medina took up His sternest critics accuse him of substantial threat to Mecca (because existing Arab religious practices, madness, or hucksterism. This such as praying at sun down and seems unlikely. Certainly those around him were convinced he was sincere, and there was a tradition of divinely inspired revelation within his community already. It seems most likely that he genuinely believed that he was hearing the voice of God, and that his own thoughts and expressions manifested themselves to him in that way. Certainly, as time went on, some of his revelations appear to be distinctly self-serving (especially over the question of his many young wives). That, however, is not so unusual. The Arabs practised polytheism at that time, and Mecca was full of shrines to various gods. Allah was one amongst them, but the chief deity. Muhammad simply began to affi rm that Allah was the only god. This affi rmation, though, was a threat to the revenues of the various shrines, and to the dignity of the groups who followed the other gods. He drew a select group of followers around him, chiefl y composed of second sons and members of minor clans. From this time comes much of Islam’s rhetoric of fairness and oppositionalism. Naturally, the
Socialist Standard April 2015 13 sun up. It also had to negotiate fellow Muslims, and so outward had later to revise pronouncements and control the existing customs on expansion became necessary. to overcome inconvenient rulings. marriage and vendetta. Muhammad Whereas the kings of Roman That, and the clear strength of the p ut a premium on limiting vendetta successor tribes in Europe found team around him allowed his religion among Muslims (restricting Christianity a ready-made tool for and state to go on smoothly, even vengeance to the direct malefactor, helping take over the Empire, for after his death. As the Islamic state and sometimes paying the blood the Arabs in the south the fact spread, and became more complex, it price to stop the feud himself). that they were taking over both required new rules, interpretations of Eventually, Muhammad became Persian and Roman lands (as well as rules and ideas. reconciled with the ruling elite of encountering Jewish and Christian Islam might represent a form of Mecca. After a show of Muslim groups under Persian domination) romantic anti-capitalism, and be able force, the Quraysh allowed him into meant they were exposed to ideas to draw upon its oppositional rhetoric Mecca on pilgrimage. In return, from different sources, and so and a form of egalitarianism and Muhammad allowed Mecca to developed a unifying religion of their mutuality under a divinely ordained continue as a place of pilgrimage, own. The abstraction of a universal destiny. It is, though, harking so long as Allah was the only god god allowed them to absorb clans back to an age before associated worshipped. The Quraysh leaders and tribes without racial distinction, production, where the question was retained their positions, and indeed and the policy of tolerance of other of distribution of surplus rather than fl ourished as the Islamic empire religious communities allowed them the direct application of labour to spread. to both collect the taxes and fi nd transform the world. It is an idea Muhammad had to mount willing subjects in rival empires. that socialists must oppose, not in expeditions to defeat rival prophets The achievements of Muhammad the name of rationalism, but through who had united different Arab tribes were in synthesising an Arab religion the need to promote instead ideas in the deserts. Whether they were that unifi ed and overcame tribal that can aid the class struggle. imitators or had come to the same divisions, as well as creating an The materialist method allows us place as him independently doesn’t expression for individualism in terms to understand both how humans matter as much as the fact that the of a personal relation with God. come to create the ideas they hold, time was clearly ripe for a unifying Further, in insisting on writing down and how to change the world for leader of some sort. Of course, once his revelations, he ensured their ourselves. the Arabs were unifi ed, this meant permanence and durability: even as PIK SMEET they could no longer raid against this came round to bite him as he
Mosque of Muhammad, Medina
14 Socialist Standard April 2015 Why just fi ght austerity? Consider the following:
• The world has a million or so multimillionaires, with disposable wealth of over $7 million each • About 100,000 people have assets of over $50 million • A fi fth of the UK population say they can barely get by fi nancially • One family in three in Britain has a member who suffers from depression or chronic anxiety disorder • Life expectancy in Britain can vary by as much as twelve years depending on where you live • There is no diffi culty in producing enough food for everyone on the planet, and bad harvests are not the reason people go hungry
The above points are taken from the writings of Danny Dorling, Professor of Geography at Oxford University (pictured). So he clearly sees that there is much wrong with the current social system in terms of inequality of wealth and health and the pressure it places on so many people. In a recent letter to the local press, however, he has recommended merely voting for the National Health Action Party, as a way of expressing support for the NHS. Why just fi ght against the attacks of austerity and cutbacks which are continual and relentless given the present way of organising society? Instead let’s fi ght for a totally new system, one where the resources of the planet belong to everyone rather than to a tiny class of super-rich (the one percent as they’re often called nowadays). Where production takes place to meet human need rather than the profi ts of the few. Where effort is put into producing food, housing, clothing and the other things and services we need, rather than wasted on advertising, armed forces and the paraphernalia of the money system, such as credit cards, banks and insurance. Where people are free of the oppression and exploitation caused by class and state. Don’t be satisfi ed with reforms. If you think the arguments above show that the present system, capitalism, does not serve the interests of the vast majority, consider supporting the Socialist Party and the World Socialist Movement in our fi ght to replace capitalism with a global socialist society. Danny Dorling should be a socialist – and so should you. Our local candidates will be Mike Foster in Oxford West & Abingdon and Kevin Parkin in Oxford East.
General election leafl et issued in Oxford.
The principles of revolutionary socialism were formed over a hundred years ago. Then, capitalist growth was being fuelled by the technological and logistical developments following the Industrial Revolution. Since then, the history of capitalism has been marked by economic peaks and troughs, two World Wars, the rise and fall of state capitalism, massive advances in science, and widespread shifts in culture and beliefs. The Socialist Party of Great Britain argues that its original principles are still valid despite all these changes. This is because the basic structure of capitalism persists, regardless of differences in the way it is organised. But is this right? Has society changed so much that class structure and the role of the state are signifi cantly different now compared to previous centuries? What effects have these changes had on class consciousness and the likelihood of revolution? And how should revolutionary socialists respond through their theory and activity? It’s always healthy to re-examine our beliefs, to see if they still apply to our ever-changing world. This weekend of talks and discussion will be an opportunity to take a fresh look at several important aspects of the socialist viewpoint. Full residential cost (including accommodation and meals Friday evening to Sunday afternoon) is £80. The concessionary rate is £40. Day visitors are welcome, but please book in advance. To book a place, send a cheque (payable to the Socialist Party of Great Britain) to Summer School, Sutton Farm, Aldborough, Boroughbridge, York, YO51 9ER, or book online through the QR code or at http://spgb.net/summerschool2015. E-mail enquiries to [email protected]
Socialist Standard April 2015 15 then, vitally important to challenge these pervasive icons and the irrational political narratives that they represent. But when indulging in such iconoclasm are we in danger of alienating those with whom we seek to communicate? And, in the light of recent murderous violence, are we willing to put ourselves in danger by doing so? Although somewhat devalued by journalistic overkill it is still possible to identify something ‘iconic’ in the results of nearly every human endeavour. In the arts, architecture, technology, science etc there arises a consensus that recognises a cultural/historic signifi cance to something, or indeed, someone who or which is created as a result. Sometimes these are intentional (propaganda) or unintentional (cult status) but all, at least for a time, capture the zeitgeist of a cultural moment. It doesn’t have to be of a contemporary nature as, for example, artists from the past can be ‘rediscovered’. The political signifi cance is always present but varies in its importance. The twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York were once icons of the US dominance of the global economic system but are now, as a result of the success of that iconic status, monuments to the terrifyingly potential murderous focus they presented to America’s enemies. ‘A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. Alone, a symbol is meaningless, but Iconoclasm with enough people, blowing up a building can change the world’. Some may recognise that quote from umanity has always been in identify with his family, clan, tribe the fi lm ‘V for Vendetta’. In that danger of being seduced by the or nation is an essentially social narrative the Houses of Parliament Hcreations of its imagination. instinct which, due to any given were destroyed without the killing The gods and monsters that have cultural context, is directed at those of anyone within, which renders haunted us still wield enormous whom they love and respect; or more the act one of pure iconoclasm power over many. The symbols problematically, those whom they in contrast to 9/11 where those and images that represent these fear. Authoritarian cultures thrive who died (the victims not the creations are considered sacred and on the need of the isolated and perpetrators) were transformed into ‘iconic’ by millions throughout the alienated individual to identify with martyrs. It may well have ’changed world. In a sadly familiar ontology the powerful - even if, or possibly the world’ but not, most would the symbols become the very because, this power derives from the argue, for the better. The original incarnation of what they represent. exploitation and subjugation of that ’gunpowder plot’ which ’V’ seeks Representations of gods, saints individual! to recreate was, of course, just as and prophets, in the original iconic When a group identifi es with a murderous in its intent as was meaning, share some of the power symbol of political power, which 9/11. But does iconoclasm have that is presumed to be owned by in capitalism invariably implies to be violent and destructive? Can what is represented. A nation’s fl ag a militaristic power, it is the the political deconstruction of an is thought, by many, to be a symbol climax of sometimes decades or icon be ideologically constructive? of who and what they are. It is this even centuries of propaganda and In its reformulation perhaps the political identifi cation rather than can generate immense irrational underlying meaning and source being derived from any supernatural emotional destructive energy. of its power can be revealed, thus or innate cultural superiority, that Historically it has been partly the exposing the irrational nature of is at the heart of iconographic manipulation of this negative energy political symbolism? power. An individual’s desire to that has made wars possible. It is, It is sometimes said that ‘a picture
16 Socialist Standard April 2015 is worth a thousand words’ and and frustrate our opponents. We it is his ideas, not his image that an icon is testament to the power continue to use the ’iconic’ images inspires us. of the image. Undoubtedly any of Karl Marx in our publicity but Someone once asked me, only half deconstruction of such images will this is mainly because those images jokingly and because of my militant anger and alienate some people gained their fame from their usage atheism, if I would be ready to swear but others might well be inspired by his opponents (the left & right) an oath on a copy of Das Kapital by the unfl inching moral and independently of our use of them; instead of the bible. The idea struck me as amusing, as I’m sure it would have done to its writer, because at the very heart of that work is the essential need to subject everything you think you know and believe to a constant process of critique - a rather different approach than the one recommended by the contents of the Bible! Anyone who doubts the continued irrational power of iconography only has to witness the candidates in the upcoming election draping themselves in the Union fl ag. This is the symbol of capitalist power and political ignorance in the UK; anyone kissing its hem to gain votes is either a hypocrite or a fool. Some years ago I was asked, in my capacity as a graphic designer, to design a symbol for the Socialist Party. Having produced many logos in the past I was surprised how diffi cult I found this commission. I realise now, in the light of this analysis, why I found it so diffi cult – in some ways socialism needs no symbols, just as it needs no leaders. Consciousness of the world as it really is makes transparent the once opaqueness of capitalist ideology political analysis that can motivate Above: members of the ‘murderous’ and its symbols. such iconoclasm. Socialists seek Gunpowder Plot. Below: the truth, the Socialism does not depend on to do just this, we do not destroy whole truth and nothing but the truth! marketing or advertising, because, images but we hope to render them like the revolution itself, it depends impotent through their subversion. on the individuals’ struggle with We will never fl inch from exposing their own cultural and political wickedness, especially when it’s conditioning - we can only provide draped in a fl ag or motivated by a catalyst for the human need for religious symbols of intolerance. But involvement in the community. We what of socialist iconography? may use the globe as a universal symbol to distance ourselves from Hammers and sickles the prosaic and insular icons of our The Socialist Party has never opponents, but only as a signpost been attached to symbolism; the for the individual to aid his personal stars and hammers and sickles of struggle and then the inevitable the Leftist totalitarian states have involvement in the class struggle increased our distaste for such itself. Would we like to destroy icons of ideological/nationalistic the buildings of ’the mother of power. We do perhaps have a parliaments’ as in the climax of the slightly romantic regard for the red fi lm mentioned above? Perhaps we fl ag and its historical association could preserve it as the museum with the Paris Commune and the it really is, where the mannequins blood shed in the class struggle (MPs) are replaced by waxworks. by the workers during and since These will then serve much more that time. If anyone was to subject purpose as icons of the past. A past, it to contempt and iconoclasm a of course, where they were slavish socialist’s response would typically puppets of their capitalist masters. be analytical in terms of the ideas WEZ represented by this essay rather than by any emotional distress; something that continues to perplex
Socialist Standard April 2015 17 Obituary: Dick Donnelly
Many members of the World Socialist Movement will be saddened by the passing of Dick Donnelly. For 58 years he was speaker, organiser and writer for the party and was contributing A thirst for profi ts to the Socialist Standard to the very end, last month ‘Voice from A STUDY has confi rmed that you can bring a horse to the Back’ column. water but you can’t make it drink. Or, rather, its modern He was only a teenager when he was introduced to socialism equivalent that you can reduce interest rates but you can’t by the family lodger who was, luckily for us, a party member. make capitalist fi rms invest. When Dick fi nished National The study, published last year by three US business Service in 1957 he joined studies academics, found that over the period from 1952 the party. This was at a time to 2010 there was no consistent relationship between in- when the party and Glasgow terest rates and corporate investment. Corporate invest- branch were at a low ebb. ment did not go up when interest rates were low and did After WW2 public interest not go down when interest rates were high (mitsloan.mit. in politics had never been edu/newsroom/2014-corporate-investment.php). greater but the brighter, So, what did infl uence business investment? ‘It turns secure post-war promised out’ said the press release on the study, ‘that healthy by the politicians failed to profi ts and stock prices are the strongest predictors of appear and the public’s corporate investment.’ To Marxian socialists this is rather interest in politics turned into apathy. obvious: the capitalist economy is driven by the quest for However, Dick’s determination not only revived the party in profi ts; so capitalist fi rms invest when they consider that Glasgow but he got it involved in more activity than ever before. their investment will bring them a profi table return; an in- Three parliamentary and numerous city council elections were dication that good profi table investment opportunities ex- contested, huge amounts of party literature were sold door to ist will be that the economy is growing and that fi rms are door, many more outdoor and indoor meetings were held and already making good profi ts. Or, as the press statement Dick was the driving force behind it all. reported the lead author saying: He soon became a fi rst-class speaker, especially outdoors ‘“What corporations really respond to is what sort of where he was in his element. Even people who may not have profi t outlook they face, and the general environment for been much interested in politics came to hear him because growth,” Kothari says, noting that investment also closely they liked his quick wit and caustic humour. Dick was as much correlates with gross domestic product growth. Practically an entertainer as a propagandist. This quick wit gave him the speaking, the results make sense in that companies have ability to drub hecklers, especially political opponents. An more money to invest, more investment opportunities, example of this was at an outdoor meeting in Glasgow when a and more pressure to spend from investors when things large number of aggressive Communists were in the audience. are good; all those factors dry up when the economy Dick ridiculed and exposed their party to such an extent that slows down.’ by the end of the meeting the aggression had turned into sullen But there is a downside to this, as the study also found. silence. When the profi table investment outlook is good, capital- During the 1960s and 70s Dick’s speaking made him so ist fi rms act as if this is not going to stop, with the result well known in Glasgow that people recognised him in streets that they come to invest too much in relation to market and pubs. It was the same in Edinburgh where he had often demand, so provoking an economic downturn and a con- spoke at meetings at The Mound. This was a large open space sequent fall in profi ts and profi table investment opportuni- in the very heart of the city and was Edinburgh’s equivalent ties: of Speakers Corner at Hyde Park in London. Dick addressed ‘The research reveals that corporate executives have big crowds at The Mound, especially during the Edinburgh their own foibles, including a propensity to overinvest at Festival when many overseas visitors could hear the case for exactly the worst time in the economic cycle. While profi ts socialism and it always got a sympathetic hearing. He made a and stock prices rise before a spike in corporate invest- big enough impression to be interviewed at The Mound for BBC ment, both decline almost immediately afterward.’ TV and when it was screened Dick performed like a seasoned The authors are at a loss to explain this apparently ir- professional. rational behaviour: Dick spoke at meetings the length and breadth of Britain. ‘The main reason for the negative relationship between Nowhere was too far and he even travelled from Glasgow to the capital expenditure spikes and business performance, deepest south west of England to represent the party in a debate Kothari believes, is a behavioural one: irrational exuber- with a local MP. ance. “As stocks and profi ts go up, corporations keep Dick’s entire political life was devoted to the party and he investing,” he says. “But rather than stopping at an ap- talked about socialism wherever he could, even in his British propriate point in time, they go a bit too far. If they had Rail workplace where he made many friends and even a few stopped at the right point, it could have been great.” party members. He kept in close touch with them. Incidentally, But is this behaviour – keeping on investing while the they were known as “The Railway Children” and a large number prospects for profi t-making are good – really irrational? of them were present at the funeral. Capitalist fi rms are all competing against each other for Over the years Dick visited comrades in New Zealand, profi ts. For one fi rm to stop investing when the profi t- Australia, America and attended the founding in Calcutta of our making outlook is good would be to risk letting its rivals companion party in India. He just couldn’t stop doing what he take a share of its potential market. It is that that would could for the World Socialist Movement. be irrational. The SPGB has never had any use for leaders, but what it has In any event, how could capitalist fi rms know when to always had are members who made outstanding contributions stop investing and, if they did, how could they reach a col- to the party and Dick Donnelly was certainly among them. His lective decision to all do this. Given the anarchy of capi- passing has has left a huge gap in our ranks and he will be a talism they can’t do either. Once a capitalist horse has hard act to follow. We extend our deepest condolences to his started drinking you can’t stop it. daughters Paula and Laura. V.V.
18 Socialist Standard April 2015 MI XED The pajama workers are organised in the MEDIA Amalgamated Shirt and Pajama Workers of America, and the antagonism between the workers and the bosses is evident in Babe’s words to Sid: ‘your the Superintendent and I’m the Grievance Committee’, and ‘Don’t listen to this man. He’s management.’ The Union say that ‘7½ cents an hour pay-rise is standard in the industry’ and that ‘business is doing well’ so the workers engage in a slow down, and ‘new ways of jamming things up’, it is 7½ cents or a strike. Then it is discovered that 7½ cents had been added to the operating costs six months The Pajama Game previously, and Hasler had pocketed the difference. The pajama workers win their 7½ cents per hour THE PAJAMA Game, a Broadway musical comedy increase in wages and the climax of the musical is the was produced last year at the Shaftesbury Theatre number Seven and a half Cents: ‘Seven and a half cents in London’s West End directed by Richard Eyre. The doesn’t buy a hell of a lot, Seven and a half cents doesn’t musical originally opened in 1954 and is based on the mean a thing! But give it to me every hour, forty hours 1953 novel 7½ Cents by Richard Bissell, who had worked every week, and that’s enough for me to be living like a as a manager in the family’s pajama factory in Dubuque, king! That’s enough for me to get an automatic washing Ohio. machine, a year’s supply of gasoline, carpeting for the The musical is set at the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory living room, a vacuum instead of a blasted broom, not in 1950s Mid-West America where the majority of to mention a forty inch television set! I’ll have myself a the workers are women. In this period 35 percent of buying spree.’ the American workforce belonged to a Union, and 29 In the 1950s the working class are bought off in percent of the workforce were women while in 1952 capitalism with consumerism. John Bugas, Ford Motor unemployment stood at only 3 percent (U.S. Department Company boss coined the term ‘consumerism’ as a of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics). substitute for ‘capitalism’ to better describe the American It is a story of Capital and Labor where the workers in economy in a 1955 speech: ‘The term ‘consumerism’ the pajama factory demand a 7½ cents an hour pay-rise. would pin the tag where it actually belongs - on Mr. Bissell described the shop fl oor: ‘the sewing machines are Consumer, the real boss and benefi ciary of the American working out themes by Stravinsky: it’s warm and lively: system. It would pull the rug right out from under our the blonde table tops gleam; the needles are punching unfriendly critics who have blasted away so long and their way to glory, 4,500 stitches a minute. Telephones loud at capitalism. Somehow, I just can’t picture them are ringing, the elevator gate is banging.’ (7½ Cents) shouting: ‘Down with the consumers!’ In The Pajama Game the new factory Superintendent Consumerism in capitalism was critiqued early on Sid Sorokin falls in love with his adversary, Union when economist Victor Lebow wrote in 1955 ‘Our representative ‘Babe’ Williams (Joanna Riding). Babe is a enormously productive economy demands that we make proto-feminist heroine declaring ‘If I needed a man to look consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying after me, I’d kill myself.’ and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual Capital is represented by such numbers as Racing with satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We the Clock where we see factory work and the insistence need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced on ‘Time is Money’, and Think of the Time I Save by and discarded at an ever-increasing rate’ (Journal of Hines, the Time and Motion manager. The 1950s saw Retailing), and in Vance Packard’s 1960 book The Waste Time and Motion studies introduced to industry based Makers, ‘consumerism’ is changed from a positive word on a business effi ciency technique combining the Time about consumer practices to a negative word meaning Study work of Frederick Winslow excessive materialism and waste. Taylor with the Motion Study work For socialists, modern capitalism of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth. Taylor manufactures false desires with and his colleagues placed emphasis advertising, the glorifi cation of on the content of a fair day’s work, accumulated capital, and the and sought to maximize productivity abstraction and reifi cation of irrespective of the physiological cost experiences of authentic life into to the worker. The capitalist boss commodities and passivity which Hasler speaks of ‘profi t levels are become the concrete manufacture of perniciously low’, and refuses the alienation. workers’ demands saying ‘7½ cents STEVE CLAYTON will price us out of the market.’
Socialist Standard April 2015 19 Book Reviews Cameras with Bombs world/2012/aug/02/philosopher- inexorable, ideologically motivated moral-case-drones). This is because desire to eliminate whole categories Grégoire Chamayou: Drone Theory. the use of drones conforms to the of people in the name of Aryan Penguin £6.99. principle of avoiding unnecessary supremacy’ (p.368). risk, removing any chance of the This won’t do. Not only because A drone is an operator being killed or injured. a great many of the deaths in the unmanned aerial Never mind that it often leads to the Holocaust were caused by brutal combat vehicle or, deaths of non-combatants and, as treatment in forced labour camps in an alternative noted above, can result in people just as they were in Stalinist Russia, formulation, being permanently observed and but also because Stalinism did a fl ying video harassed and so living in a kind of indeed attempt to eradicate entire camera armed psychological prison. As Chamayou categories of people, mainly its with missiles. They says, drones ‘constitute the weapons ideological and political opponents. have been used of state terrorism’. There is nothing to be gained by such in Afghanistan, This book provides an instructive sophistry – each brutal regime killed Pakistan and picture of the use of drones and how people on a mass scale, both in a Yemen, among other places, and in this barbaric weapon is transforming calculated fashion and as a product the fi ve years to January 2014 US warfare in both theory and practice. of general neglect and mistreatment. drones alone are estimated to have PB Hayes also claims that the killed at least 2,400 people. In this attempts to link the regimes using book (translated from French by the concept of ‘totalitarianism’ was Janet Lloyd) Grégoire Chamayou Left Right, Left a politically-motivated product of looks at various issues related to the Right the Cold War, seeking to discredit use of drones, from military to more one by association with the other, and ignoring ‘some remarkable philosophical questions. The Ideology of Fascism and the Drones were originally deployed social advances’ by the so-called Far Right in Britain, by Mark Communist regimes. In what appears just as cameras, and the US military Hayes. Red Quill Books. 2014. made use of software developed to be a partial apology for repression in Soviet Russia he claims the ‘case for sports broadcasting to track Here, Mark Hayes individuals. The result can be a for an identity between communist examines the and fascist systems is very weak. kind of persistent surveillance, with ideological basis eyes in the sky always watching Much as it might offend assiduously of fascism in cultivated liberal sensitivities, it people, so there is no escape for Britain, seeking either combatants or civilians on the is entirely legitimate and indeed to learn the desirable to distinguish between a ground. And this is not just in war lessons of how it zones as the concept of a ‘zone of forced or necessary repression and arises and how to a voluntary or inherent coercion’ armed confl ict’ is no longer purely combat it. There geographic. (p.367). is much detailed It is this sort of attempted defence But with missiles added to them discussion about drones allow the remote-controlled of the Stalinist regimes – half- the key defi ning categories of fascism hearted in some ways but noticeable hunting down of humans. The and its variants, the genesis of operator may sit in comfort in an air enough – which undermines the fascism in the UK, and how political credibility of the other arguments force base in Nevada, attempting to activists and academics alike have identify acceptable targets several put forward here. Indeed, in line sought to interpret it. with the Communist Party’s views thousand miles away and then Written from a particular leftist releasing missiles at them. Air force before the Russian regime did a deal perspective the book attacks the with Hitler and signed the Molotov- pilots regard killing by means of Trotskyists who have often used drones as cowardice, as the operators Ribbentrop Pact in 1939, the main ‘anti-fascism’ as a means for argument appears to be that ‘active are in no danger themselves. recruitment, and Hayes argues that There have been claims that drone resistance’ to fascists is the only anti-fascist campaigns have often way forward, implying physical operators suffer from trauma as a been shorn of their class element, result of their work, as it involves the force. As such, Hayes claims that rarely addressing the underlying for years anti-fascists have been ‘far invulnerable killing the defenceless, concerns of those who might be but Chamayou argues that there is too preoccupied with the idea of free attracted towards fascism in the speech and the idea that fascism no actual evidence for this. fi rst place. In many respects he has Drones effectively abolish combat, should be exposed to the penetrating a point here of course and there is light of democratic debate in the as there is no way to fi ght against plenty to like about this book as it them. This creates a problem for hope that sensible, rational people takes a genuinely serious, in-depth will see through the lies and half- those who see killing in war as look at the issues. However, there are justifi ed on the basis that it is a truths of fascist discourse’ (p.438). defi ciencies here too and they tend While he doesn’t entirely dismiss matter of self-defence, with both to stem from the same particular sides at risk and liable to be killed. democratic and educational activities, source. In one section, he argues it is odd indeed to think that this But if one side is more or less that the mass murder carried out defenceless and the other side’s has somehow been the dominant in Russia by the brutal Stalinist approach on the radical left. On the soldiers are thousands of miles away regime was somehow clearly and from the death zone, where is the contrary, most leftist organisations qualitatively different to that carried have long argued for ‘no platform’ for justifi cation for the killing? Apologists out by the Nazis: for US power have come to the rescue the fascists and have spent much of ‘Death was often a by-product their time plotting to disrupt their here, arguing that the drone is a of malevolent mistreatment in the humanitarian means of killing (for an meetings and block their marches. former, while it was the inevitable In truth, few in Britain and most example, see www.theguardian.com/ consequence of the latter’s
20 Socialist Standard April 2015 other advanced economies have been attracted to fascist ideas in recent decades – even the now riven Guns before needs BNP was a hardcore of fascists that developed a political orientation and NORMALLY UNDER capitalism it’s profi ts commanded. support base that was more akin before needs but sometimes, since And the attitude of the Labour Party? to the sort of right-wing populism capitalism can’t exist without the state, “Labour has pledged to outspend the now associated with UKIP. When something else is granted priority. Not Conservatives on defence in the next fascist ideas have been put to the meeting any of people’s needs of course parliament, heaping pressure on David serious test in democratic debate but a state’s need to have armed force Cameron as he faces a growing rebellion they have always been found wanting at its disposal. This, not just to protect over armed forces expenditure. soon enough and the defenders of Ed Balls promised authoritarian revolution on the far yesterday that Labour left have often not had much to would go “nowhere coherently add beyond the shouting. near the huge scale of After all – and despite all their defence cuts you are undoubted efforts – it is diffi cult to going to see under the meaningfully oppose authoritarian Conservatives”. barbarity of one sort if you support After a speech in (or are prepared to apologise for London, the shadow it) in other circumstances. That is chancellor said that one of the main reasons why fascist he would prioritise organisations may come and go, but defence in the the self-styled anti-fascists of the spending review after Stalinist and Trotskyist left remain sources of raw materials, trade routes, the election, adding: “I think that it’s as distrusted now as they ever have markets and investment outlets for its really important that we live up to our been. capitalist fi rms but also because, in the international responsibilities.” DAP diplomatic jockeying between states for Mr Balls added: “A Labour Treasury power and infl uence on the world stage, will want to back the defence of our “might is right”. country at a critical time, and that’s why The US government is concerned I am refusing point-blank to sign up to that austerity in Britain has gone too the extreme plans that George Osborne far as the war (or, in Orwellian, the has set out before us as his election “defence”) budget has also been cut. manifesto.” (Times , 10 March). The US government knows that Britain, Not that we should be – or are – thanks to its imperial(ist) past, has in surprised. The Labour Party has always its armed forces a highly effi cient killing supported the war preparations of the machine that it can rely on to back up British state and the wars in which has its own killing machine. The militarist been engaged. And yet there are some lobby in Britain has wheeled out retired who still see it as the lesser of two evils. generals and admirals to support more But how do you tell the difference? money for the killing machine they once
Putting Protest To The Test
UNFORTUNATELY, ‘growing Direct action like this only comes about because up’ usually means swapping the vast majority of us have little say in the important your youthful enthusiasm for decisions which affect us. People end up going to extreme the decades-long sentence of lengths such as jumping out in front of Rupert Murdoch’s stress and boredom we’ve learnt limousine or climbing power station chimneys because to call adulthood. Hopefully this won’t they don’t have much infl uence otherwise. And why happen to the fi ve young activists featured on should they? Corporations and institutions are owned BBC3’s Fighting The System. Showing enviable amounts by a distant minority with their own interests to protect. of passion for their beliefs, animal rights campaigners They only take on board the wishes of protestors when Phoebe and Jayne protest at shops selling angora rabbit it becomes advantageous for them to do so. Direct fur, and hand out leafl ets reminding people in burger joints action hasn’t been able to make changes to the basic what they’re eating. Danielle is part of a group of climate way society is structured to exploit and restrict us, and change protestors who occupy power stations, bravely not therefore new causes to protest about keep springing up. letting the consequences of getting a criminal record stop So, Fighting The System has a misleading title. The young them. Yaz is an 18 year old feminist taking a stand outside activists it features aren’t fi ghting the system as much the Sun newspaper’s headquarters against topless as fi ghting against some effects of the system, but that models on page three. Sarah joins in with the occupation doesn’t sound quite so snappy. Hopefully, the activists will of empty-but-useable council houses in Newham, London turn their energy to making real, fundamental changes to by the Focus E15 Mothers group. All appreciate the strong society. friendships, new skills, and rushes of adrenaline they’ve MIKE FOSTER found through their protests.
Socialist Standard April 2015 21 Meetings
For full details of all our meetings and events see our Meetup site: http://www.meetup.com/The-Socialist-Party-of-Great-Britain/
General Election 2015 Hustings/ Folkestone CT20 1DY St Aldates, Oxford OX1 1BX Meetings/Events Saturday, 11 April, from 12 noon Wednesday, 22 April, 7.30pm Socialist Party Election Stall Oxford West and Abingdon Environment Brighton Pavilion, Brighton Kemptown Folkestone Town Hall, junction of Election Hustings LGBT Election Hustings Sandgate Road and Guildhall Street, Assembly Room, Oxford Town Hall, Queens Hotel, 1-3 Kings Road, Brighton Folkestone CT20 1DY St Aldates, Oxford OX1 1BX BN1 1NS Saturday, 18 April, from 12 noon Tuesday, 28 April, 7.30pm Monday, 13 April, 7.00pm ‘One Church’ Election Hustings Islington North Swansea West Gloucester Place Baptist Islington Election Hustings ‘Which Way Forward for Britain?’ Church,Gloucester Place, Brighton BN1 Islington Town Hall, Upper Street, Debate between the Socialist Party and 4AA London N1 2UD UKIP Sunday, 19 April, 7.00pm Wednesday, 15 April, 7.00pm Unitarian Church, High Street, Swansea SA1 1NZ Canterbury Oxford East, Oxford West and Abingdon Monday, 13 April, 7.00pm Socialist Party Election Stall CPRE Oxfordshire Election Hustings The Parade, Canterbury St Barnabas Church, Cardigan Street, Vauxhall Saturday, 4 April, from 12 noon Oxford OX2 6BG Socialist Party Election Stall Canterbury Election Hustings Thursday, 9 April, 7.00pm 52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 Gulbenkian Theatre, University of Kent at ‘Any Questions’ Churches Together in 7UN Canterbury CT2 7NB Marston and Northway Election Hustings Saturday, 4 April, from 12 noon Monday, 20 April, 7.00pm Venue TBC Socialist Party Election Stall Socialist Party Election Stall Tuesday, 14 April, 7.30pm 52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 The Parade, Canterbury Brookes University Election Hustings 7UN Saturday, 25 April, from 12 noon Union Hall, Gipsy Lane Campus, Oxford Saturday, 11 April, from 12 noon Canterbury and Whitstable Magna Carta Wednesday, 15 April, 6.00pm Socialist Party Election Stall 800 Hustings Abingdon Election Hustings 52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 Westgate Hall, Westgate Hall Road, The Guildhall, Abbey Close, Abingdon 7UN Canterbury CT1 2BT OX14 3JD Saturday, 18 April, from 12 noon Tuesday, 28 April, 7.30pm Wednesday, 15 April, 7.00pm Socialist Party Election Stall Whitstable Election Hustings 52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 St Alphage Church, Oxford Street, Botley (Oxfordshire) Election Hustings 7UN Whitstable CT5 1AY St Peter and St Paul Church, Westway, Saturday, 25 April, from 12 noon Thursday, 30 April, 7.00pm Botley OX2 9LS Socialist Party Election Rally, Socialist Party Election Stall Friday, 17 April, 7.00pm 52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 The Parade, Canterbury Affordable Housing Oxford Election 7UN Saturday, 2 May, from 12 noon Hustings Speaker: Danny Lambert, Socialist Party Oxford Town Hall, St Aldates, Oxford OX1 candidate for Vauxhall Folkestone and Hythe 1BX Sunday, 26 April, 3.00pm Folkestone Election Hustings Monday, 20 April, 7.30pm Socialist Party Election Stall St John’s Church Hall, St John’s Church Cheney School (Oxfordshire) Election 52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 Road, Folkestone CT19 5BQ Hustings, Cheney School, Cheney Lane, 7UN Wednesday, 8 April, 2.00pm Headington, Oxford OX3 0BP Saturday, 2 May, from 12 noon. Socialist Party Election Stall Tuesday, 21 April, 7.00pm Folkestone Town Hall, junction of Oxford East Election Hustings Sandgate Road and Guildhall Street, Assembly Room, Oxford Town Hall, Declaration of Principles
This declaration is the basis of our a class struggle between those who possess the powers of government, national and local, organisation and, because it is also an but do not produce and those who produce in order that this machinery, including these important historical document dating from but do not possess. forces, may be converted from an instrument the formation of the party in 1904, its original of oppression into the agent of emancipation language has been retained. 3.That this antagonism can be abolished only and the overthrow of privilege, aristocratic by the emancipation of the working class and plutocratic. Object from the domination of the master class, by The establishment of a system of society the conversion into the common property 7.That as all political parties are but the based upon the common ownership of society of the means of production and expression of class interests, and as the and democratic control of the means distribution, and their democratic control by interest of the working class is diametrically and instruments for producing and the whole people. opposed to the interests of all sections of the distributing wealth by and in the interest master class, the party seeking working class of the whole community. 4.That as in the order of social evolution the emancipation must be hostile to every other working class is the last class to achieve its party. Declaration of Principles freedom, the emancipation of the working The Socialist Party of Great Britain holds class will involve the emancipation of all 8.The Socialist Party of Great Britain, mankind, without distinction of race or sex. therefore, enters the fi eld of political action 1.That society as at present constituted is determined to wage war against all other based upon the ownership of the means 5. That this emancipation must be the work of political parties, whether alleged labour of living (i.e. land, factories, railways, etc.) the working class itself. or avowedly capitalist, and calls upon the by the capitalist or master class, and the members of the working class of this country consequent enslavement of the working 6.That as the machinery of government, to muster under its banner to the end that a class, by whose labour alone wealth is including the armed forces of the nation, speedy termination may be wrought to the produced. exists only to conserve the monopoly by the system which deprives them of the fruits of capitalist class of the wealth taken from the their labour, and that poverty may give place 2.That in society, therefore, there is an workers, the working class must organize to comfort, privilege to equality, and slavery antagonism of interests, manifesting itself as consciously and politically for the conquest of to freedom.
22 Socialist Standard April 2015 50 Years Ago How we could live ALREADY, WORKING together, we would be no privileged, rich elite able produce a great deal of wealth. But to buy their way to infl uence and Malcolm X most of us don’t get to see or benefi t power much from it. Imagine how much We need to organise ourselves to ACCORDING TO his autobiography, more needed things could be pro- demand common ownership and Malcolm X expected to die violently, but duced and useful services provided if democratic control of the productive probably most people expected that, if the 200 million unemployed people in wealth of the world. It will take all this happened, it would be by the hand of the world were allowed to work. of us, standing together, debating, a white man. It is not laziness stopping them. discussing and planning in order to The assassination provoked an The barrier is profi t. The people who make the change possible. It can be outburst of hysteria and apprehension— own the world’s factories, machines done. even regret from people who were only and tools must make a profi t or they recently denouncing the doctrines which won’t hire. If we owned these re- Malcolm X had expounded. sources together, we could use the The murdered fruits of our labour for our own ben- man moved in a Picture Credits efi t. We could share out the wealth world of violence. we create together. p4: Palace of Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud, 2007, His mother, he said, M.chohan, PD We wouldn’t need markets and the was conceived after p6: Adam & Eve, 2000, Phillip Medhurst, CCA-SA waste that goes with them. We could 3.0 a white man had directly produce enough for all. We p8: Lamb kidneys, 2005, MiaK, CC BY-SA 3.0 raped his grand- p9: Aidan Burley – © Aidan Burley 2010 GNU Free could save all the work and effort mother. His father Documentation License. that goes with buying and selling and p10: Sugar cane plant, 2007, Harald Kreutzer, was also murdered, shuffl ing money around and instead CCA-SA 4.0; raw sugar, 2006, Romain Behar, PD his skull smashed in p12: Muhammad’s Mosque, Medina, create more of what we need. No and his body fl ung 2006, Noumenon, CCA-SA 3.0; map, 2006, more tax collectors, benefi t offi cers or NormanEinstein, CCA-SA 3.0; Mecca aerial view, under the wheels of a street car. bankers. It would be more effi cient to 2011, Wurzelgnohm,PD; pre-Islamic Sphinx, 2010, It was only after the seemingly inevi- Jean Housen, CC BY-SA 3.0 simply share out our produce freely table career of crime and drug addiction p15: Danny Dorling - sheffi eldgreenparty.org.uk. and according to need. p19: pictures: thepajamagamethemusical.com that Malcolm X became interested in Working together, we can free up p20: Drone Theory – amazon.co.uk. The Ideology the Black Muslims—an event which, he of Fascism and the Far Right in Britain – amazon. our time so we can take control of the wrote, gave him “a little feeling of self- co.uk communities where we live. We could p21: The British Dream – largeprintbookshop.co.uk . respect.” p24: George Carlin, 2008, Bonnie, CC BY-SA 2.0; have democracy at work too. We He soon became prominent in the Communist Manifesto, www.marxists.org, PD would be able to control the real deci- movement, attracting a lot of publicity with sions that affect all our lives. There his teachings that the Negro should be strong, disciplined and ready to answer violence with violence. A few months ago he came to the Oxford Union to defend FREE his own interpretation of Barry Goldwa- 3-month trial subscription to the ter’s famous remarks on extremism. It is perhaps surprising that there was Socialist Standard not a Malcolm X before. The oppressions and indignities to which the American Ne- gro are subjected are so extreme that it was predictable they should develop their own, counter-extremist, organisation. If history is any guide, it was also pre- dictable that this organisation should split, and that the struggle between the two factions (the Black Muslims and Malcolm X’s Organisation of Afro-American Unity) should be as bitter and as ruthless as that against their common adversary. We have seen this before. We have For more details about The Socialist Party, or to request a 3-month trial subscription seen it in Cyprus and in Algeria and to the Socialist Standard, please complete and return this form to 52 Clapham High many, many times before that. We saw it Street, London SW4 7UN. in Ireland, in the days when Michael Col- lins was shot down on the far South road from Skibbereen to Cork. Please send me an info pack In many ways, the United States today Please send me a trial subscription to the Socialist Standard. is a cauldron of savagery and hatred. In an ugly situation, the Negroes them- Name...... selves offer scant hope. The summit of Address ...... their ambition is in fact to be exploited on equal terms with the white wage slaves ...... who now stand just a little above them on ...... the social scale...... (from ‘News in Review’, Socialist Standard, April 1965) Postcode......
Socialist Standard April 2015 23 RD In Memoriam
Once as history, twice as farce economic crisis, with 2014 seeing a Caroline Lucas, now 54, says the Greens’ further rise in numbers (RT, 6 March). UN Utopia most popular policy today is to bring Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young The USA, for all its faults, has to be seen the railways back into public ownership has kindly come forward with a possible as an improvement on the Kingdom of when the franchises expire (Guardian, 28 solution to this worldwide ‘problem’. He Saudi Arabia, where a ‘Saudi woman February). A fare dodger who was caught said that if he let loose wolves in some who had fallen victim to a violent gang- forging his own fi rst class train tickets has congressional districts, they ’wouldn’t rape has been sentenced to 200 lashes been ordered to pay back £17,000 (Daily have a homeless problem anymore’ and six months in jail after being found Mail, 5 March). The not so Artful Dodger, (Washington Post , 5 March). guilty of speaking to the media about the Mark Mason, 44, is old enough to recall crime and indecency’(PressTV 7 March). that one had to buy tickets in order to UN Women executive director Phumzile travel on the nationalised trains. Some Mlambo-Ngcuka said gender equality socialists at the time took to wearing a must be reached before 2030, because badge with the apposite question: if the until currently, not a single country has railways are ours, why do we have to achieved gender equality (Ahram Online, pay? 3 March). Gender equality in 15 years? Only in a socialist world. Shit sandwich There are 41 million people who do not Three key reasons for war have access to a toilet in Pakistan and as Russia’s president knows exactly what a result they are defecating in the open. he wants, and it’s not eastern Ukraine. And open defecation has signifi cant His interests are all about oil and gas health and nutritional consequences. and supply routes. The rest is smoke Pakistan is the third-largest country when and mirrors (The Daily Beast, 1 March). it comes to people doing this in the open, Correct: states compete over natural behind India and Indonesia(AP, 8 March). resources, trade routes and areas of The farms generate so much waste that domination. it would be too expensive to transport via pipeline or a truck, Wing said. So manure And fi nally some good news is dispersed via big pumps and sprayers More than 1,700 bargain copies of The . . . The sprayers shower hundreds of George Carlin, 2008 Communist Manifesto have sold in the gallons per minute (household lawn last week, in the form of an 80p edition of sprinklers average about two or three Telling it straight Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s call to gallons per minute) . . . Of 187 samples, George Carlin had something to say the working 40 percent exceeded state and federal about Young and his ilk: ’Good honest classes water guidelines for fecal coliforms, hard-working people continue, these are to revolt harmful bacteria from animal faeces people of modest means, continue to (Guardian, 4 (Truthout , 6 March). The problem here elect these rich cock suckers who don’t March). is not a shortage of money – Pakistan give a fuck about you . . . they don’t give RS and India are nuclear armed, the latter a fuck about you . . . they don’t give a has even entered the space race – and FUCK about you. They don’t care about the water contamination in the US (and you at all . . . at all . . . AT ALL. And elsewhere) could be eliminated were it nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems Communist not for capitalism and its never-ending to care. That’s what the owners count Manifesto pursit of profi t. on. The fact that Americans will probably original cover, 1848 remain willfully ignorant of the big red, Barking mad white and blue dick that’s being jammed At least 95 families were evicted every up their assholes everyday, because the day in Spain in 2014, fresh statistics say owners of this country know the truth. as Spaniards struggle to meet mortgage It’s called the American Dream, because payments. Home foreclosures have you have to be asleep to believe it’ become a stark symbol of the 7-year shoqvalue, 25 September 2010).
ISSN24 0037 8259 Socialist Standard April 2015 Produced and published by the Socialist Party of Great Britain, 52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UN