Socialist Standard March 2021 1 Introducing the Socialist Party

The Socialist Party advocates a society developing Russian capitalism under a where production is freed from the one-party dictatorship. Both failures have artificial constraints of profit and given socialism a quite different -- and organised for the benefit of all on the unattractive -- meaning: state ownership basis of material abundance. It does not and control. As the Socialist Standard have policies to ameliorate aspects of pointed out before both courses were the existing social system. It is opposed followed, the results would more properly to all war. be called state capitalism. The Socialist Standard is the combative The Socialist Party and the World monthly journal of the Socialist Party, Socialist Movement affirm that capitalism published without interruption since is incapable of meaningful change in 1904. In the 1930s the Socialist Standard the interests of the majority; that the explained why capitalism would not basis of exploitation is the wages/money collapse of its own accord, in response to system. The Socialist Standard is proud widespread claims to the contrary, and to have kept alive the original idea of continues to hold this view in face of the what socialism is -- a classless, stateless, notion’s recent popularity. Beveridge’s of the natural world can have limited wageless, moneyless society or, defined welfare measures of the 1940s were effect and run counter to the nature of positively, a democracy in which free and viewed as a reorganisation of poverty and capitalism itself. equal men and women co-operate to a necessary ‘expense’ of production, and Gradualist reformers like the Labour produce the things they need to live and Keynesian policies designed to overcome Party believed that capitalism could be enjoy life, to which they have free access slumps an illusion. Today, the journal transformed through a series of social in accordance with the principle ‘from exposes as false the view that banks measures, but have merely become each according to their abilities, to each create money out of thin air, and explains routine managers of the system. The according to their needs’ why actions to prevent the depredation Bolsheviks had to be content with

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2 Socialist Standard March 2021 Editorial Resistance is not enough A decade has passed since a tidal wave police cracked down heavily on the Aung San Suu Kyi. Notwithstanding their of revolt swept across the Middle East demonstrators. particular flaws – Navalny is a Russian and North Africa washing away autocratic On 1 February in Myanmar, the military, nationalist and harbours anti-immigrant regimes in its wake. That this happened after alleging that voter fraud had helped positions, and Suu Kyi, while in power, seemed to have not only taken the local the National League of Democracy (Aung has defended the state persecution dictators by surprise, but also the rest San Suu Kyi’s party) to secure a landslide of the Rohingya Muslims – they are of the world. And yet it should not have victory in the November 2020 general both committed to upholding the done. After years of state repression election, deposed and detained the capitalist system which is the source of combined with economic hardship that elected civilian rulers, including Suu Kyi, workers’ social problems. They would had been made worse by the 2008 and declared direct military rule for one be overseeing the exploitation of the financial crisis, working people had year. In response mass protests have working class. had enough and rose up to struggle for erupted, which have elicited a severe Sadly, the uprising of the Arab Spring political democracy. High unemployment, crackdown by the police and the military. ten years ago did not bring about especially among young workers, and Public servants, health workers, teachers democracy for the workers. With the poor economic prospects were the and other workers have gone on strike in possible exception of Tunisia, autocratic tinderbox. The suicide of a street seller in an attempt to end military rule and restore dictatorships still prevail in the region. Tunisia was the spark. civilian government. This does not mean that workers should We can see similar dynamics recently What is common to these protests give up the political fight. On the contrary, working themselves out in Russia and is the deteriorating living standards we urge workers to struggle not just for Myanmar. In January, Alexey Navalny, a suffered by workers which has been political democracy but for a fundamental long-time opponent of Putin, returned exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic change in how we organise society. What to Russia after being treated for nerve and popular disenchantment with the is needed is a class-conscious working agent poisoning in Berlin. He was corrupt capitalist rulers who have been class to organise globally to capture arrested and imprisoned on a charge of accumulating greater amounts of wealth. political power democratically to rid the violating his parole conditions relating We can only sympathise with these planet of capitalism and establish genuine to a suspended sentence he received in workers struggling to obtain democratic socialism, a worldwide society without 2014 for embezzlement. This sparked rights. However, we believe it would national borders, money or social classes, rallies and protests across Russia. Some be a mistake for them to put their trust where everyone can participate equally have descended into violence as the in political leaders such Navalny and and enjoy free access to social wealth.

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Socialist Standard March 2021 3 Speaking of tongues A YEAR ago most of us were hearing terms in the wrong direction. Meanwhile the mean anything in culture-bound capitalism. like lockdown, social distancing and furlough appearance of the weird composite Most obviously, you’d expect vocabulary for the first time. Since then the pandemic form ‘musicien.ne.s’ and ‘lecteur.rice.s’ changes. For instance, we may see words has spawned a host of new coinages, such as (readers) is creating a Gallic backlash like property, money, market, trade, buy Miley (as in Miley Cyrus, geddit?), covidiot or against what is known as ‘inclusive and sell fall out of use entirely, along with morona (someone who behaves as if there’s writing’, with the French Prime Minister an entire lexicon of financial, business, no Miley), quarantini (home martini) fresh in 2017 imposing a ban on its use in state judicial and military terms. The words steal from your isobar (well-stocked booze fridge), documents. It may well be true, or at and robbery would surely disappear, and zoom bombing, coronials (babies conceived least plausible, that male-biased language hopefully murder and rape along with them. in lockdown), and spendemic (the increase forms tend to create male-biased social As for gendered noun classes, it’s not hard in online shopping). paradigms, but structurally there’s a limit to envisage socialist society dropping them. These neologisms probably won’t last, to what you can do. Gendered noun And in a society where time isn’t money but they do showcase the effervescent wit classes run through a huge number of and you don’t have to watch the clock, and ingenuity of the working class. People languages like Brighton through a stick of is it a stretch to suggest that even tenses like language. It’s not just a tool, it’s a toy. rock. To make them gender-neutral you’d might simplify or even disappear? It’s not And it can be a political hot potato. have to dismantle the languages and impossible. Mandarin Chinese manages quite Just last December it was reported that rebuild them from the ground up. well without tenses (It is cold yesterday). Germany is going to revert to its pre-1940s That’s not going to happen, on purpose How might this realistically come about? phonetic spelling table (equivalent to anyway. People with good pattern- By revolution, of course, not reform. English call-signs Alpha, Bravo, Charlie), recognition skills often learn to like the Consider what happens if people become which the Nazis had altered as being forms and structures of languages for their more mobile, as is quite possible when ‘too Jewish’. Now Germans will have own sake, and can become prim sticklers location and occupation cease to be a ball to remember to say Samuel instead of over its rules, decrying the slightest and chain, and where available transport Siegfried, Zacharias for Zeppelin, Nathan deviation as an offence of ignorance systems are free at the point of use. Suppose for Nordpol, and David for Dora. It’s kind or heresy. But language was always a you are a sixteen-year-old and you want to of funny, in a dark sort of way. matter of ignorance and heresy. People go off and see the world. There’s nothing Not that we should laugh. Jack went up the spelt things the way they sounded, and to stop you travelling, perhaps to every hill with their bucket while Jill fell down and frequently misheard. Un napron became country in the world, helping out with the broke their crown. Er, whose bucket, whose an apron because the Saxons wrote menial jobs wherever you fetch up, and crown? Apparently it doesn’t matter. The it down wrong. Snottingham became soaking up a global cultural and linguistic woke war against pronouns is making us all Nottingham because the Normans experience beyond anything conceivable into undifferentiated plurals, even when our couldn’t pronounce it. Latin crocodilus today except for the idle rich. When 18th individual gender is neither an unknown nor became coccodrillo because the Italians century officials of the East India Company a contentious issue. English is abandoning couldn’t pronounce it. Jewellery becomes returned to England after plundering Bengal, clarity for the sake of a political point, but joolery, nuclear becomes nucular. What they spoke fluent Hindustani, wore flowing perhaps that’s the price we have to pay for the hell, we know what we mean. Indian silks and turbans, and built ‘Nabob’ diplomacy. The Germans call each other The intolerance set in with Dr country houses replete with minarets and ‘they’, the French retain the polite you-plural Johnson’s dictionary and a desire for domes. They also brought curry to England, centuries after the English stopped caring standardisation. It’s impossible to imagine thereby transforming the British favourite about politeness, while the Italians were put modern capitalism managing its business food. Imagine what worldwide free and open off the you-plural because Mussolini liked it, and communications successfully without mobility might do for your local town and and now call each other ‘she’. such language standards, but it ultimately culture. And with this mobility, languages From the standpoint of modern English, goes against the grain of what language is, might flow and merge into a global travellers’ which has dispensed with a lot of language a dynamic and creative process that does creole with remnants of everything in it, just rules we were too bored or incompetent to not want to lie still and play dead. And it like we get ‘sky’ from the Vikings, ‘telephone’ follow, the use of gender in other languages won’t, no matter what the rules say. from Greek, ‘shampoo’ from Hindi and seems bizarre and mysterious, as well as After dropping genders, case systems ‘paradise’ from Persian. hard to learn and inconsistent. Why is salt and polite forms English is now busily Young white Londoners today speak a female in Spanish, but male in French? Why merging its simple past with its perfect hip new Asian-Cockney that didn’t exist a does the German for ‘girl’ have a neuter past (Sink, sank, sunk = Sink, sunk, sunk). generation ago. ‘Street’ dictionaries have article? Why does ‘hand’ in Italian have a It often doesn’t bother with a future tense to be updated weekly. The one constant male form but a female article? What is it (I’m going tomorrow), even less with thing about language is change. And that’s with all this sex anyway? It’s very unBritish. archaic subjunctives (If I were you), and just as true of the people who speak it. After much official foot-dragging, the seems increasingly confused about perfect When people get around to creating the French are now feminising male nouns so conditionals (I should of known). post-scarcity world of common ownership as to recognise the existence of female Somewhat counter-intuitively, languages which we call socialism, we should expect ‘docteures, professeures, pompières’ tend to become simpler as they evolve, at our languages and cultures to start doing all (firefighters), although in highlighting least if they’re allowed to. That being so, it’s kinds of interesting and surprising things. gender instead of erasing it completely tempting to wonder if socialism will strip PJS they’re arguably rowing the language out a lot of legacy linguistics that only really

4 Socialist Standard March 2021 Reflections They will come to that conclusion because every reform they Dear Editors, attempt, every conservation project they undertake, every patching-up attempt they make, every charitable endeavour I think we can say that, if it doesn’t abolish capitalism, humanity of theirs, is punched to the ground by capitalism every day, doesn’t have a very long time, because capitalism is destroying it being the root cause of all of it: famine, war, poverty, the very planet we live on. As a system, it cannot go against its pollution, destruction. own raison d’être, which is the accumulation of capital. This is The threads are yet to come together, but I think they are the very definition of capitalism, and life itself is sacrificed for it heading in that direction, bit by bit, and independently of us and must always be while the system lasts. Governments cannot socialists today. That may sound optimistic but the pessimistic resolve this because they are the representatives of capital. alternative is that capitalism will never be got rid of, and will, Their helmsmen (leaders, presidents, prime ministers, etc.) lead instead, get rid of life on Earth. That is the distinct possibility. nothing. They cannot control capitalism. It controls them. Maybe that will happen, and socialism remain a fond dream. So, Nothing stands still; not in nature nor in society. Ironically, are we to give up? I think giving up would be unethical. capitalism, with its very destructiveness, is socialism’s greatest It would be unethical toward not just our fellow humans, ally. People, throughout history, become political when the but all our fellow animals and our planet, and to all the yet environment they are in compels them to, and this is our hope. unborn too. It isn’t that the Socialist Party (that is, the real socialist A mass movement becomes a reality not one by one, but movement for a stateless, classless, moneyless society) could by tipping points being reached. Initial tipping points are the ever convert the majority of the world’s workers through its longest to reach, and successive ones more and more rapid. The political activity, but that the world’s workers themselves will first need only take a couple of thousand, after which the pace come to the same conclusion as us through many independent quickens thereafter – with tipping points also being reached routes and threads and coming to that conclusion (that the independently in different parts of the globe before contact, after system of prices and profits, buying and selling, wage-slavery and which the pace becomes a deluge. capital accumulation must go, if we are to save the Earth and if And this last is why the capitalists’ state apparatuses would be our grandchildren are to live) without any need to study Marx or helpless to stop it. even to read a single book. ANTHONY WALKER

Socialist Standard March 2021 5 COOKING THE BOOKS Is capitalism based on Marx didn’t even see dependence on getting their money back with interest and, unsustainable debt? debt as one of capitalism’s contradictions. if the chances are not good enough, they Debt is something owed by somebody or won’t lend. They sometimes get it wrong, A new group calling itself ‘Blue Revolution’ some organisation to some other person but not on the systematic and massive scale has sent us a couple of pamphlets. In one or organisation that has lent them money. assumed by those who think that debts The History of Politics Simplified of them, , So, if you are claiming an economic system are likely to get out of hand and bring the they talk of the ‘debt based free market is based on debt you are at the same time system down. system’ and make the claim that the ‘free claiming that it is based on lending. Ironically perhaps, it is governments that market ... relies on an economy that is Borrowing (i.e., getting into debt) and are the least likely to default. This is because dependent on debt’. They invoke Marx in lending are certainly features of capitalism, they have the power to raise money from support of this: and if lenders stopped lending the system taxes. Which is why, when they scent a ‘... unless change take place the western would be in trouble, but why would recession coming, financial institutions economy will in the words of Karl Marx lenders do that? Banks and other financial switch to buying government debt (bonds). collapse under the weight of its economic institutions make money by lending money The leading capitalist states are not going to contradictions ... Reliance on this system (theirs or other people’s or organisations’) go bankrupt; their borrowing is sustainable will bankrupt the government first and in return for interest, a part of which is their and lenders know it. then, the nation.’ profit. It is lending to capitalist enterprises that Marx never expressed such words. He There are three types of borrowers – causes trouble for the system from time to never wrote of capitalism collapsing under individual workers, capitalist enterprises, time. Capitalist enterprises are driven by its economic contradictions. He did point and governments. Lenders lend workers the pursuit of profits; in a boom one sector out capitalism’s contradictions – such as money to buy consumer items such as always eventually overestimates the chances between use-value and exchange value, household goods, a car or a house but they of this, as do those who lend them money. and between co-operative production and always check first the chances of getting The result is an economic downturn and private ownership – but did not expect their money back out of future wages; if financial crisis. However, this is not the end these to lead to the system’s economic they don’t think these chances are high of the system. Slumps eventually create collapse. What they did cause was enough they will refuse a loan. Lenders lend the conditions for a recovery by restoring production under capitalism to be erratic, to capitalist enterprises to invest in some profit-making prospects, and profit-making veering continuously between boom profitable project and calculate whether and capital accumulation resume until the and slump and back. His view was that they will get their money back out of future next slump. capitalism would have to be brought to an profits. They lend to states for the interest The present economic system is not end through conscious action by the wage- states will pay them out of taxation. dependent on debt but on making profits. working class. In all cases they weigh up the chances of

6 Socialist Standard March 2021 Global socialism ‘ asudhaiva Kutumbakam’ is a Sanskrit phrase found in service of health and peaceful life. The overriding goal must Hindu holy texts such as the Maha Upanishad, the Rig be human security, providing food, water, a clean environment VVeda and the Bhagavata, which means ‘the world is one and good health for people. Socialists recognise the value of family’. Although anti-religion, the companion parties in the collective social relationships. We’re brothers and sisters who World Socialist Movement embody that concept in our axiom must think and act cooperatively to achieve common goals. ‘One world, One people.’ We must become one world through genuine cooperation The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the climate and collaboration among all the people of the world, emergency has shown us that there is something very wrong coordinating to protect humanity. We need a mighty with the system we live under. It has led many people to movement to transform the political institutions and contemplate a future other than apocalyptic catastrophes economic structures. The same dedication and determination and instead hold hope that the threat of pollution and plague with which wars have been conducted through the ages must might lead to a better world. Both crises have made clear now be applied to building a peaceful and prosperous planet. the oneness of the peoples of the world. What we share is Human beings can only take so much. The living natural much more powerful than what keeps us apart. All people world can only take so much. The peoples of the planet are are inescapably interconnected, and the more we can come ripe for change. But unless we make the world socialist together to solve our problems, the better our chances that we commonwealth our goal change may not be necessarily can avoid a possible collapse of civilisation. progressive. It could be reactionary and fuelled by religious Capitalism, through its creation of a world market, has extremism, xenophobia, racism, and tribalism. broken down many of the barriers between the nations. The What is up to us within the socialist movement is to present capitalist method of production draws all the peoples of the a positive vision of the future. To point out all the mutual aid globe together. But this same capitalism also promotes the strengthening of nationalism through trade wars that from time for the alternative. Society must redirect the resources it’snetworks currently we wastingsee flourishing and instead across provide the world. for the Now needs is the and that world market. Commercial rivalries intensify national wants of people. enmities.time to time That turn is why into thearmed idea conflicts of a world to securecommunity more and of universal peace cannot prosper under capitalist society. reject divisions and recognise that it is possible to build a newTo systemsurvive of and social prosper, justice. to fulfilFrom our the potential, chaos of the we old,must we is continually frustrated by competing national capitalisms, can create a future civilisation in which humanity can live in theWhereas internationalism the globalisation of the working influence people of the is corporations strengthened harmony. In times of crises such as these, people are offering by the mutual solidarity of the interests of all the workers, support to one another. This as an opportunity to reset society regardless of their location or nationality. The position for a better future. We can rebuild our society in an egalitarian of the workers is almost identical in its essential features way, in an environmentally friendly way. We can banish the throughout the world. While the interests of the capitalists politics of hatred. The Socialist Party proposes a society-wide democracy, the interests of the working class coincide and workers come toof differentrealise this countries in the course unceasingly of their conflict struggles. with For one instance, another, enough of being fed the false arguments that human nature, in their attempts to secure higher wages, a reduction of over-populationand an end to the or profit shortage system. of resources Working peopleprevent have socialism had hours, and other workplace protections, our fellow workers and that we need leaders and a process of gradual reforms to continually meet obstacles, which arise from the competition bring about a socialist society. We have had enough of waiting. between the capitalists of various nations. An increase in It’s possible now. We can bury forever all national chauvinism, wages or a reduction of the working day in any particular racial prejudice, and religious bigotry beginning today. country is undermined by the competition of other countries ALJO in which these reforms have not yet been achieved. Such things convince workers of the solidarity of their interests and of the necessity for joining forces in the struggle to improve their condition. Emancipation from wage slavery is unthinkable without a worldwide socialist reconstruction of society. The Socialist Party’s goal is the union of the workers of the whole world in a common struggle for liberation, the greatest social movement in human history. A movement is rooted in the blood, sweat and tears of millions who have spent their lives throughout history clamouring for a better society that works for everyone. This movement does not appear by magic and we need to consciously commit ourselves to the systemic transformation to a classless society where the resources of the Earth become the common heritage of all humanity. Humanity can work together to prevail over problems and learn the folly of battling one another. The climate crisis and the pandemic demonstrate the mutual dependencies of the world’s peoples and the requirement that the planet’s resources be redirected for the

Socialist Standard March 2021 7 Contact details website: www.worldsocialism.org/spgb email: [email protected] UK BRANCHES & CONTACTS Cornwall. Contact: Harry Sowden, Contact: Richard Botterill, 21 Pen-Y-Bryn Rd, All meetings online during the pandemic. 16 Polgine Lane, Troon, Camborne, TR14 9DY. Gabalfa, Cardiff, CF14 3LG. 02920-615826. See page 23. 01209 611820. [email protected] LONDON East Anglia. Contact: David Porter, Eastholme, North London branch. Meets 3rd Thurs. 8pm at Bush Drive, Eccles-on-Sea, NR12 0SF. 01692 INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS Torriano Meeting House, 99 Torriano Ave, NW5 582533. Richard Headicar, 42 Woodcote, Firs 2RX. Contact: Chris Dufton 020 7609 0983 Rd, Hethersett, NR9 3JD. 01603 814343. LATIN AMERICA [email protected] Essex. Contact: Pat Deutz, 11 The Links, Contact: J.M. Morel, Calle 7 edif 45 apto South London branch. Meets last Saturday in Billericay, CM12 0EX. [email protected]. 102, Multis nuevo La loteria, La Vega, Rep. month, 2.30pm. Head Office, 52 Clapham High Cambridge. Contact: Andrew Westley, Dominicana. St, SW4 7UN. Contact: 020 7622 3811. [email protected]. 07890343044. West London branch. Meets 1st Tues. 8pm. AFRICA Chiswick Town Hall, Heathfield Terrace (corner IRELAND Kenya. Contact: Patrick Ndege, Sutton Court Rd), W4. Cork. Contact: Kevin Cronin, 5 Curragh Woods, PO Box 13627-00100, GPO, Nairobi [email protected] Frankfield, Cork. 021 4896427. Zambia. Contact: Kephas Mulenga, [email protected] PO Box 280168, Kitwe. MIDLANDS NORTHERN IRELAND West Midlands regional branch. Meets Belfast Contact: Nigel McCullough. ASIA last Sat. 3pm (check before attending). 02890 930002 Japan. Contact: Michael. japan.wsm@gmail. com Contact: Stephen Shapton. 01543 821180. Email: [email protected]. SCOTLAND AUSTRALIA Edinburgh branch. Meets 1st Thurs. 7-9pm. Contact: Trevor Clarke, NORTH The Quaker Hall, Victoria Terrace (above [email protected] North East Regional branch. Victoria Street), Edinburgh. Contact: J. Moir. Contact: P. Kilgallon, c/o Head Office, 52 0131 440 0995. [email protected] EUROPE Clapham High Street, SW4 7UN. Branch website: Denmark. Contact: Graham Taylor, Kjaerslund Lancaster branch. Meets 3rd Mon, 3pm, http://geocities.com/edinburghbranch/ 9, Floor 2 (middle), DK-8260 Viby J. Friends Meeting House, Meeting House Lane. Glasgow branch. Meets 1st and 3rd Tues. at Germany. Contact: Norbert. Ring to confirm: P. Shannon, 07510 412 261, 7pm in Community Central Halls, 304 Maryhill [email protected] [email protected]. Road, Glasgow. Contact: Peter Hendrie, 75 Norway. Contact: Robert Stafford. Manchester branch. Contact: Paul Bennett, Lairhills Road, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0LH. [email protected] 6 Burleigh Mews, Hardy Lane, M21 7LB. 0161 01355 903105. Italy. Contact: Gian Maria Freddi, 860 7189. [email protected]. Via Poiano n. 137, 37142 Verona. Bolton. Contact: H. McLaughlin. 01204 844589. Dundee. Contact: Ian Ratcliffe, 12 Finlow Spain. Contact: Alberto Gordillo, Avenida del Cumbria. Contact: Brendan Cummings, Terrace, Dundee, DD4 9NA. 01382 698297. Parque. 2/2/3 Puerta A, 13200 Manzanares. 19 Queen St, Millom, Cumbria LA18 4BG. Ayrshire. Contact: Paul Edwards 01563 541138. Doncaster. Contact: Fredi Edwards, [email protected]. COMPANION PARTIES OVERSEAS [email protected] Lothian Socialist Discussion @Autonomous Centre Edinburgh, ACE, 17 West Montgomery Socialist Party of Canada/Parti Socialiste SOUTH/SOUTHEAST/SOUTHWEST Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA. Meets 4th Weds. du Canada. Box 31024, Victoria B.C. V8N 6J3 Kent and Sussex regional branch. Meets 2nd 7-9pm. Contact: F. Anderson 07724 082753. Canada. [email protected] Sun. 2pm at The Muggleton Inn, High Street, Maidstone ME14 1HJ. Contact: spgb.ksrb@ WALES World Socialist Party (India) 257 Baghajatin ‘E’ worldsocialism.org. South Wales Branch (Swansea) Block (East), Kolkata - 700086, 033- 2425-0208. South West regional branch. Meets 3rd Sat. Meets 2nd Mon, 7.30pm (except January, [email protected] 2pm at the Railway Tavern, 131 South Western April, July and October), Unitarian Church, High Road, Salisbury SP2 7RR. Street, SA1 1NZ. Contact: Geoffrey Williams, 19 World Socialist Party (New Zealand) Contact: Stephen Harper spgbsw@gmail,com Baptist Well Street, Waun Wen, Swansea SA1 P.O. Box 1929, Auckland, NI, New Zealand. Brighton. Contact: Anton Pruden, 6FB. 01792 643624. [email protected] South Wales Branch (Cardiff) World Socialist Party of the United States. Canterbury. Contact: Rob Cox, 4 Stanhope Meets 2nd Saturday 12 noon (January, April, P.O. Box 440247, Boston, MA 02144 USA. Road, Deal, Kent, CT14 6AB. July and October) Cafe Nero, Capitol Shopping [email protected] Luton. Contact: Nick White, 59 Heywood Drive, Centre, Queens Street, Cardiff. LU2 7LP.

8 Socialist Standard March 2021 Crackdown or Backdown? WHILE THERE are many unsettling could have been a business decision country’s military in ways that safeguard questions posed by Aung Sang Suu Kyi and made in the boardroom rather than the its own power interests. This explains her National League for Democracy (NLD)’s war-room by the upper echelons of the the persistence of authoritarian rule and complicity in the persecution of ethnic military who feel threatened by Suu military dominance in contemporary minorities, the World Socialist Movement Kyi’s continued popularity which could Myanmar politics. expresses its solidarity with our Myanmar potentially lead to a campaign against And because the global economic fellow-workers in their present struggle. corruption and further constitutional system was interested in profiting from Having had a taste of liberty, no matter change. Suu Kyi and her NLD have tried Myanmar’s economic potentials, its how limited, the people of Myanmar have to re-model the military-dominated largely untapped natural riches – including shown that they will not passively submit economy by implementing the ‘Myanmar minerals, natural gas, and hydropower to the return of the army dictatorship. Sustainable Economic Development Plan’ and an undeveloped market - it presented The pro-democracy movement has taken which welcomes foreign investment but ideal commercial opportunities and so the on a life of its own in rejecting the rule of could bring the hegemony of the military looming shadows of the generals in the background were conveniently ignored. an authoritarian militaryCredit: junta. Shekhar There Yadav is clique to an end. now a new generation of young people Who knows what might happen? Many commentators have excused accustomed to accessing social media. Information still remains mainly limited Aung Sang Suu Kyi’s complicity in the The defiant three-fingered salute of the to hearsay and guesswork. What we do oppression of the Rohingya as a sign Hunger Games movies, adopted by pro- know is that the NLD collaboration with that she and her party were never really democracy activists in Thailand and Hong the Tatmadaw led to garment workers on in charge and that she was obliged to Kong has now become the gesture of strike being attacked in 2018 and union compromise her own democratic ideals in resistance in Myanmar. activists in May 2020 being arrested. Suu a Faustian pact with the army. If true, the ‘This movement is leaderless — people Kyi calculated that Burmese Buddhist lesson is very clear for all to see now – are getting on the streets in their own way nationalism was a winning electoral that those who sup with the devil should and at their own will,’ said activist Thinzar strategy. Ethnic minorities represent have a very long spoon. Shunlei Yi to AP Press. around 40 percent of Myanmar’s total 54 Critics of socialism say that what has Peaceful public demonstrations and million population. But around 2.5 million arisen in Myanmar will happen if there spontaneous unofficial strikes have become ethnic minority citizens were unable to is a socialist victory at the polls — those widespread, actions which are full of vote in last year’s election – including 1.5 in control of state power won’t concede personal risk as this army has not hesitated million voters in conflict-affected areas their power. Our answer is that if there exists a majority for socialism the socialist in the past to brutally suppress opposition. due to security concerns and one million movement will eventually prevail one There is much speculation about why Rohingya who are denied citizenship and way or another, sooner or later. The the army re-imposed full control but we voting rights. Political democracy in its immediate reaction would be strikes and do know that it was not because of any current shape has not served Myanmar’s demonstrations and mass disaffection, concern about fraud in the November’s ethnic minorities, but it’s still better, the same disobedience which we witness election. The only way to counter the even in an illiberal form, than Tatmadaw happening in Myanmar. coup is non-violent civil disobedience rule, a hybrid civil–military system which ALJO of one kind or another to win over the protects military dominance. The previous state’s forces of coercion, which our fellow political reforms were orchestrated by the workers are now engaged in. This cannot be a fight between the NLD and the generals. It has to be to deprive the junta of legitimacy and recognition and hinder it from functioning by strikes in the hope that this type of mass participation tactic will disable the dictatorship’s ability to rule and disrupt the vast business empire of the Tatmadaw (the armed forces). In addition is the anticipation of possible mass defections from the police and army. Nearly fifty police departments in Loikaw, the capital of eastern Kayah state, crossed lines and joined the protest march where the banner read, ‘No military dictatorship.’ Importantly, without mutinies within the armed forces and police, the ruling clique is likely to win, at least, temporarily. As the major actor in the Myanmar economy, owning substantial investments, the Tatmadaw has been reluctant to yield meaningful political power. The coup REUTERS | Credit: STRINGER Creator: Socialist Standard March 2021 9 too low. This too, however, is not unprecedented. It hovered just above 60 percent from 2011 to 2013. Then in 2014 confrontation with Ukraine bumped it up to 85—90 percent.

aThe means annexation of ‘averting of Crimea revolution’ was especially by Tsarist popular. interior No minister doubt Vyacheslavthe remedy Plehveof ‘a short in 1904 victorious – can bewar’ applied – first yet recommended again. as

Nature of the ‘Putin regime’ But what is this ‘regime’ that Putin has established in Russia? The Putin regime is neither a democracy nor an out-and-out

It can be represented as three concentric circles: dictatorship.• at the core: It isPutin, officially his presidential described as administration a ‘guided democracy’. and government, and his loyal ‘party of power’ – United Russia (the opposition calls it ‘the party of crooks and thieves’); • the ‘intra-system opposition’ of parties that accept Putin as president but advocate their own policies within permitted limits. There are at present three such parties: the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), Zhirinovsky’s ultra- nationalist Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and Just Russia, a ‘social-democratic’ reform party that belongs to the Socialist International; • the ‘extra-system opposition’ of parties and groups that protests against the Putin regime? Western media Whavehat is called the significance them ‘unprecedented’. of the current That Russian is not so. (formerly the Party of Progress). Refused registration, they Mass protests are a frequent occurrence in Russia, though operateoppose Putin,under including duress and Navalny’s are unable ‘Russia to contest of the elections.Future’ rarely do they attract much attention abroad. Many give voice The term ‘opposition’ is therefore ambiguous. In its broad to local grievances. This January, for example, residents of sense it refers to the intra-system as well as the extra-system Ufa protested (successfully) against a big increase in heating opposition, in its narrow sense only to the extra-system charges. In 2019 there were mass meetings in Moscow against opposition. an urban renewal programme that threatened people’s homes – meetings larger (so a Russian correspondent tells Uniting the opposition me) than the anti-Putin protest. However, nationwide protest movements also occur, such as that in 2018 against a ‘reform’ deeplyThe political divided, situation as we reported in Russia in has the changed Socialist in Standard one significant a pension (43 percent of Russian men die before reaching the (Materialrespect. Nine World, years July ago 2012). the extra-system The three main opposition components was newto raise retirement by five years age). the age at which people can start to draw of the movement were Russian nationalists, Western-type Even focusing solely on protests organised by the anti- liberals, and leftists of various sorts. Opposition rallies were Putin opposition, today’s protests are similar in size and enlivened by verbal and even physical clashes between geographical scope to those that began in December 2011 nationalists on one side and anarchists or gay activists on the and continued into 2012. Those protests were not on a large other. enough scale to have any chance of toppling the regime, nor are the current protests. They mobilise a much smaller proportion of the population (1 percent at most) than the whoThese claim internal to combine conflicts Russian have nationalismbeen resolved, with mainly Western- due opposition demonstrations in Belarus did last October (about to the rising influence of so-called ‘national democrats’ 5 percent). this development. Leftists have been marginalized within thetype opposition liberalism. or Alexei have Navalnyabandoned has theplayed movement. a central A role group in Enormous power potential of anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists recently issued a The Putin regime is not going to collapse any time soon. declaration in which they renounce: Its power potential is still enormous. It retains full control ‘all participation in the political spectacles organised by over TV – still the medium on which most Russians rely for information – and print media. Oligarchs connected with the for his openly nationalist attacks on immigrants, people from regime (independent ones are no longer tolerated) own most thesupporters Caucasus of andthe right-wingJews. Whatever populist excuses Navalny, or ‘explanations’ sadly renowned of Russia’s natural resources and heavy industry. The state may be offered, joining in their demonstrations would mean bureaucracy and armed forces remain loyal. turning into an appendage of one of the political gangs waging True, the regime has reason to be concerned about a a dirty and unprincipled struggle for power’ (bit.ly/3phllol). gradual long-term erosion of popular support. Younger people have access to a wider range of information through ‘smart’ – that is, tactically – for the strongest opposition the internet and social media. Tens of millions have watched candidateSince 2019 standing Navalny in anyhas election,urged his even supporters if that candidate to vote is the opposition video Putin’s Palace, about the president’s a ‘communist’ or one of Zhirinovsky’s people. Tactical voting luxurious residence on the Black Sea coast. will tend to strengthen the oppositional character of the intra- Polls show that Putin’s approval rating has fallen over the system opposition and narrow the gap between the intra- last couple of years to about 60 percent, which is considered system and extra-system oppositions.

10 Socialist Standard March 2021 Who is Navalny? face value. He highlights a promise to establish a minimum Katya Kazbek in The Grayzone monthly wage of 25,000 rubles (£242.50 or $325), but further and foremost … an investigative journalist’ who exposes on we learn that this is a goal to be achieved by stages, the corruption within the Putin regime says that(bit.ly/3amqo2J). Navalny is ‘first This is pace to be set by regional governments (bit.ly/3rQmzIW). certainly the centrepiece of his public activity. However, the investigations on which the anti-corruption campaign relies projecting different versions of himself at different audiences have for some time been conducted mainly by researchers at (anIt essentialis difficult skill to assess of any Navalnygood politician). because heFacing is such west, a master he at poses as a champion of human rights and condemns Russia’s ‘aggression against Ukraine’. But he is unwilling to give Crimea Orhis isFoundation it an instrument for Fighting in his Corruptionbid for power? rather It is than hard by to Navalny think back to Ukraine. And he shares Russian nationalist ideas that ofpersonally. any other Is theme fighting that corruption would be anequally end in effective itself for in Navalny? bringing militate against full recognition of Ukraine’s sovereignty – the diverse elements together in a broad coalition. Who, after all, perception of Russians and Ukrainians as constituting a single is in favour of corruption? nation and the concept of a ‘Russian World’ that extends to This does not mean we can assume that a regime led by Slav areas beyond state borders but does not encompass the

Russian Federation. dealings,Navalny would though prove he calls any the less charges corrupt ‘frame-ups’. once he came to power. Northern Caucasus, which he proposes to sever from the Navalny has himself been convicted for fraud in his business Dehumanizing ethnic minorities blogger and video star who exploits social media to the full. He hasNavalny a characteristic is not only ironic a public style speaker and sense but ofalso humour. a prolific nationalism. Of course, the Putin regime itself is nationalistic. Most alarming, however, is the internal aspect of Navalny’s What does Navalny stand for? ethnic Russian nationalism. He demands the full assimilation ofBut ethnic Putin’s minorities: is a state nationalism.those who wish Navalny’s to live inis primarilyRussia ‘must an become (ethnically) Russian in the full sense’. notThe biascruel our treatment view of whatof Navalny he stands by the for. Putin regime has won him much sympathy and admiration. Nevertheless, this should from Central Asia (above all, Tajikistan) and the Caucasus. from a ‘super-presidential’ to a ‘presidential-parliamentary TheyNavalny’s originally main came targets to Russia have beento earn the some Moslem money immigrants and republic’Navalny’s with constitutional an independent proposals judiciary. envision His economic transition return home, but increasing numbers have settled in Russian platform appeals to capitalists who lack close connections to cities, where they have been allowed to build mosques. Even the regime. He undertakes to transform the existing ‘twisted’ though they do the hardest and dirtiest jobs, they are widely and ‘authoritarian-oligarchic model’ of ‘crony capitalism’ hated and abused. Their position resembles that of Hispanic into a fully competitive model of capitalism with a level taken full advantage of anti-immigrant sentiment. restart economic growth, ‘create a well-functioning pension immigrants in the United States. Like Trump, Navalny hasThe system’,playing fieldmove and towards a strong an high-techall-volunteer sector. military, He promises reduce crime,to Guardian. To quote Walker: improve roads, transfer authority and taxes to the regions and ‘SeveralIn April 2017years Shaunago, he Walker released interviewed a number Navalnyof disturbing for municipalities, and stay out of wars abroad. videos, including one in which he is dressed as a dentist, complaining that tooth cavities ruin healthy teeth, as clips of migrant workers are shown. In another video, he speaks out in AndNot how all ofwill Navalny’s he fund slogansall his programmes, seem compatible. including For example,a doubling favour of relaxing gun controls, in a monologue that appears ofis itstate really spending possible on to healthcare ‘fight corruption’ and education, but also and ‘trust at people’?the to compare migrants to cockroaches. same time cut taxes? He says he will do this by reducing I ask him if he regrets those videos now, and he’s spending on the unapologetic. He sees it as a strength that he can speak to security services and both liberals and nationalists. But comparing migrants to ‘bureaucracy’ – but cockroaches? ‘That was artistic license,’ he says. So there’s that is easier said nothing at all from those videos or that period that he regrets? than done. Although he criticizes the extreme inequality ‘enemies’‘No,’ he says came again, during firmly’ the (bit.ly/3pe0YZf). 2008 invasion of Georgia, which of wealth in Russia, heAnother enthusiastically example supported. of Navalny’s Indulging dehumanization in a play ofon ethnic words, he does not back Just gruziny) rodents (grizuny). Russia’s demand to replace the current RussiaNavalny called in Western Georgians media ( We can conclude by agreeing with the remarks of Katya tax (13 percent) by Kazbek concerning how Western media cover events in Russia aflat-rate progressive income tax (as well as in other countries regarded as adversaries of the (though he does West). ‘The overwhelming majority of Western journalists,’ want to make the she observes, ‘are busy communicating their own narrative, property tax more which does not have anything to do with the real situation progressive). Closer examination governments. It is therefore ‘misleading and dangerous to suggests that not all judgeon the Russia ground’ by but what ‘too you often hear reflects most often the opinions’ about it’. of NATO STEFAN should be taken at of Navalny’s promises Socialist Standard March 2021 11 persons or property the prospect of another working week, but a reference was taking place, Btoloody 9 March, Monday! 1761. Not Two a Sunday hundred night and expostulation sixty years ago over 50 although the crowd or so men and women were killed and over 300 wounded in was undoubtedly vociferous and Ask most people for an example of Crown (state) brutality menacing. The the market square in Hexham,in theNorthumberland. period of the burgeoning magistrates read industrial revolution and they The Riot Act, which will cite St. Peter’s Fields, instructed the crowd Peterloo, in Manchester, to disperse by law. that quite rightly was The assembled written into the annals did no such thing of infamy. However, it became rioters. They the last, confrontation didand nothingthus, officially, to dispel betweenwas not the the authorities first, nor this notion, instead and working people. they advanced, many bearing staves, on the bayonets protecting the Moot Hall. In 1760s was a form of conscription that febrile atmosphere, two militia men were shot with their known as balloting. This had nothingThe specificto do with issue elections in the own weapons. The magistrates panicked and gave the order to and certainly not democracy. The Militia Act had been passed through parliament to boost the said military force to free When the gunpowder smoke cleared, so had the market up and support the army heavily engaged in the ‘Seven Years square,fire. leaving the dead and seriously wounded. Reports War’ (1754-63). at the time noted that many of the militia men were visibly shocked by the consequences. This did not prevent the whose names were then drawn from this census had, by law, authorities seeking out and arresting many of those who got Potential militia recruits were to be identified and those away on the day. area in which to begin this process, with Hexham one of the 260 years later there are still lessons to be drawn from mainto serve. centres. The North East of England was nominated as the first events such as this one. Those who advocate the necessity for 9 March, 1761 was to be the initial enlistment day and the violent overthrow of the capitalist state would do well to rumblings of discontent had been gathering force throughout the preceding weeks. Conscious that opposition might be be dealt such a dreadful blow with muskets, how much worse rather more than just grumbling, local magistrates brought a withreflect modern on such automatic incidents. weapons. If a crowd superior in numbers can

deployed them in front of the Moot Hall. Flying police squads detachmentBefore them of protestersthe North Yorkshire gathered inMilitia huge into numbers Hexham in theand The deployment of a militia force from a different region was, market square, drawing widespread support from many local in principle, utilised during the miners’ strike (1984-5) when parishes as well as the town itself. It was at this point that the

This is not to say an actual riot with violence towards police were brought from non-mining areas into the coalfields. gathering officially became a riot. The state has long sincesympathies. recognised the greater efficiency of its coercive powers when applied via forces deficient in local Chartist Meeting, Kennington Common the importance of democracy, however 1848 imperfectIt also a itdramatic may be confirmationunder capitalism. of The Hexham ‘rioters’ had no means by which to pursue their grievance or exercise choice. Confrontation would have seemed their only option as they could not challenge, or change, the law used against them. Collective expressions of outrage, such as that gathering in Hexham, are essentially reactive, an expression of weakness. The best that could have been hoped for was a return to the status quo. A forced repeal of The Militia Act might have inconvenienced the Crown in the short term, but was no real threat to its actual authority. Had the ballot system been stopped at that point, life for those assembled would have simply gone back to the way things

12 Socialist Standard March 2021 were. There would General have been no forward romance of violent Napier movement, politically, revolutioncannon fire. soon The gives economically or way faced with the socially. This is grim realities of actual the way with all combat. immediate, pragmatic The British state has demands, even when learned these lessons initially met. over two hundred The state, to this years and more. If day, continues to there is an instance of enact and employ over-reaction, Bloody laws to the advantage Sunday for example, of capitalism against the interests of the Then set up a public vast majority, the first allow time to pass. working class. But better if he has died in the meantime or can resign from some only for as long as the working class chooses to tolerate this prestigiousenquiry, hold post some – and official even of offer the timean apology, responsible possibly – all with the state of affairs. It is within the means of the working class to compensation, but not too much. not only challenge, but take control of the state away from the Appearances are thus maintained, while the dead and capitalist class. injured slip away into the history books, the rule of law There is a danger to the state of over-reacting; the seeming preserved. The state protects itself to protect capitalism solution to a local problem can become a national, and and will continue to do so until the working class decides otherwise. treatment develops. For all the repressive apparatus available, There was one positive factor to be found in the immediate thepersisting Warsaw difficulty Pact states, if a generaland eventually perception the ofSoviet unfair Union or brutal itself, aftermath of the Hexham debacle - the reports that the militia could not assuage popular discontent. troops were shocked by the results of their actions. Socialists It is also the case that it’s not enough to secure what turns know that military men and, these days, women may be out to be a Pyrrhic victory when the result is a case of ‘the trained to kill, but are not inured to the results, as so many state is dead, long live the state’. The bureaucrats become cases of PTSD indicate. oligarchs and capitalism continues along its (not so) merry Also, despite being the coercive arm of the state they are way. workers, from working-class families. When the working class collectively decide they will democratically replace capitalism What history shows with socialism, soldiers are not going to be unaffected. There are those of a radical bent who might argue the tragic As the Hexham magistrates knew, they couldn’t rely on outcome in Hexham is a demonstration of the need for a the local militia to confront their own neighbours so had to disciplined body to covertly organise rebellion. However, bring in others from elsewhere. When the socialist movement history does not hold much promise for such a notion. becomes worldwide, as it must to achieve socialism, there won’t be an elsewhere to draw soldiers from. Peterloo, such a clandestine operation occurred in the West DAVE ALTON RidingNearly of sixtyYorkshire. years Thereafter the had Hexham been a number‘riot’, one of year radical after working men’s clubs established in the West Riding and Lancashire, some of their leading lights being ex-Luddites. target for insurrectionists. ManyBarnsley’s a plan wasUnion drawn Society up withwas one Huddersfield such club beingwith around an initial 600 members. The Society received word that an assault on

Barnsley men to go and join a bigger assembly at the village of Huddersfield was scheduled for 12 April. The plan was for Through the night of the 11-12th approximately 400 men fromGrange Barnsley Moor, close marched by Huddersfield. to a beating drum with banners bearing political slogans and carrying pikes and guns. At Grange Moor they met not with the expected thousands from across the Riding and Lancashire, but 20 or so radicals town, panic ensued resulting in a disorderly dispersal and thefrom abandonment Huddersfield. of Aware weapons of a andmilitary banners. presence Seventeen in the were eventually arrested. Years later Chartists who were sympathetic to the idea of invitation to some of their leaders to witness a display of physical force had their ardour cooled by General Napier’s Socialist Standard March 2021 13 We conclude our series refuting the view that workers in Wage levels and the rate of exploitation the developed capitalist parts of the world exploit workers What determines the ‘rate of exploitation’ cannot simply be living in the ‘Third World’. inferred from the level of wages paid to workers; it must take into account, also, their productivity. Paradoxically, higher paid hird Worldist ‘anti-imperialism’ basically contends workers can be subject to a higher rate of exploitation if the ratio of the surplus they produce compared to the size of their Tobjectively aligned with the capitalists there in seeking wage packet is higher than in the case of a low-paid worker. to perpetuatethat the theinterests ‘super-exploitation’ of workers in theof the Global Global North South. are However, this can change if you reduce the wages of the low- Allegedly, this super-exploitation has the effect of raising these paid worker thereby increasing his rate of exploitation. workers above the status of an exploited class by enabling Commentators, like John Smith, argue that depressing wages them, via a process of ‘unequal exchange’, to receive the full below their value in the Global South – super-exploitation – is value of their labour contribution. now the primary mechanism under capitalism for increasing As Jason Hickel explains: the rate of exploitation (Imperialism in the Twenty-First ‘It was the Egyptian economist Samir Amin – a well-known Century, 2016). Capital is highly mobile today while labour, hemmed in by national borders, is relatively immobile. This in the 1970s. He noticed that that if we look at the labour obstructs the equalisation of international wage rates (but thatcritic goes of neo-colonialism into producing –goods who firstfor trade articulated between this the argument south and north, we see that workers in the south are paid much siphoned out of the Global South). Multinational corporations less than their northern counterparts – even when adjusted cannot theplay equalisation one poor country of profit off rates against whereby another surplus in their value quest is for productivity or units of output per hour. This means that for lower production costs while a corrupt ‘comprador when the north buys goods from the south, they pay far less bourgeoisie’ running these countries assists in this race to the than those goods would otherwise be worth. In other words, bottom by imposing political repression and banning trade the north effectively siphons uncompensated value out of the unions. south’ (Guardian, 18 May 2017). This argument has merit but, still, we cannot overlook differential rates of productivity. According to Hickel: there is an intrinsic problem (as we saw last month) with ‘Southern workers are probably at least as productive tryingWhile to this quantify explanation the magnitude might seem of this superficially global transfer plausible, of since these days many of them work in foreign-owned value – let alone quantify the extent to which workers, as technology and rigid Taylorist rules, designed to extract as this transfer – due to value being based on the elusive notion muchfactories as possible(think of from Apple’s every iPad movement).’ factories with highly efficient ofopposed ‘abstract to capitalists,labour’. Hence in the the north use of allegedly price as benefita surrogate from Clearly, this is just cherry-picking. The vast majority of measure. But while the sum of all values must equate with the Southern workers don’t work in foreign-owned factories. sum of all prices, for any given commodity, value and price Some do and, doubtless, productivity in these cases matches must necessarily diverge under conditions of disequilibrium Western levels. But you have to look at the situation across the resulting from the continual adjustment of supply and demand country as a whole to get a more realistic picture. to each other. Even in an emerging industrial powerhouse like India, the Take the commodity, labour power – the skills the worker formal sector accounts for only 10 percent of the workforce, sells to the capitalist. Its price is the wage that worker the rest working in the informal sector. Globally ‘a staggering receives. However, this transaction is conditional upon 2 billion workers are in informal employment, accounting worker. A business is not a charity. It is not concerned with World Employment Social Outlook: Trends 2019). the wellbeingcapitalist expecting of its workforce to make as a such. profit Competition by employing between the forThese three are in five overwhelmingly (61 per cent) concentratedof the world’s in workforce’ the Global (ILO, businesses pushes such sentiments aside and imposes on all South. Given the paucity of formal sector jobs and the lack of

but to eke out a living in the low-paid informal sector. This is the overriding need to secure a profit. characterisedunemployment by benefits, rampant workers ‘underemployment’ here often have and little relatively option Without profit the business risks being bankrupted. This is as true in the Global North as in the Global South and it is There is some truth in Hickel’s claim that ‘wages are theresurely and significant not in the that South. the overwhelming That wouldn’t bulk happen of capital without – even the notinefficient somehow small-scale naturally ‘involutionary’ low in the south forms – they of activity. have been foreign direct investment – originating in the North is invested made low by design. Wages are an effect of power’. But his explanation is incomplete. The bargaining power of those workerprospect produces of profit. in exchange for a wage. She produces more workers is, in turn, undermined by the depressing effect valueProfit than is theshe money receives form in her of the wage. economic Hence shesurplus is ‘exploited’. the on wages caused by mass unemployment and, even more, It doesn’t matter whether she is ‘well paid’ or not. Whether underemployment, which is much more pronounced in the she can ‘purchase the product of ten hours of another South. worker’s labour through one hour of her own’ as Zac Cope The much larger ‘industrial reserve army’ also helps to puts it, is simply not relevant (Divided World Divided Class: explain the persistence of generally more labour-intensive Global Political Economy and the Stratification of Labour Under Capitalism, 2012, p.173) Her means of purchasing that lower per capita productivity. According to the ILO there product – her wage – is conditional upon her producing a isforms a strong of production correlation there between and, byoutput extension, per worker the significantly and international variations in wage rates (bit.ly/2OhfIK2). exploited. Indeed, Marx himself maintained that ‘The more productive surplus for her employer in the first instance and, thus, being 14 Socialist Standard March 2021 is because the capitalists there can ‘afford’ to pay their workers higher wages to buy these goods which presumably means they are

them. making a profit by employing Who benefits from lower import prices? Wages, being the price of labour power, will tend to adjust to changes in the prices of other commodities. Cheapening the price of

intensifying the exploitation ofimports Southern into workers the North will by not one country is relative to another in the world market, the higher will be its wages as compared with the other’ (Theories outsource production to the Southmaterially and close benefit down workersfactories in of Surplus Value, Ch. 8). Key to this is raising the ‘organic in the North. Actually, if anything, it has induced capitalists to composition of capital’ via mechanisation thereby bringing tendthe North to gravitate at the expense towards of the northern value of workers. labour power. Marx’s Ironically, Cope himself contends that ‘the capitalist observationsLike water findingon the earlyits own nineteenth-century level wages will ultimately struggle to systemabout a hasfall beenin the able rate to of maintain profit. itself in recent decades’ repeal the Corn Laws which restricted food imports to boost only because, among other things, ‘industrialisation of large domestic prices are pertinent here: parts of the Third World have ensured the entry of millions ‘The English workers have very well understood the of (super-)exploited workers into the global workforce. This industrial capitalists. They know very well that the price rate of growth of the organic composition of capital’ (ibid ofsignificance bread was of to the be strugglereduced betweenin order tothe reduce landlords wages, and and the p.201).has undoubtedly So he is effectively raised the conceding rate of profit that by production reducing thethere bit. is more labour-intensive and we can assume this means less ly/2LvHt0p). productive in per capita terms. thatWhile industrial it is undeniable profit would that rise there by areas much marked as rentdifferences fell’ ( There is a further point to consider. As we saw earlier, part suggestions that the gap may be closing. A report in the workers are ‘unproductive’ in the sense that they do not Economistin wage rates noted between that while the North wage and growth South in therethe advanced are some of Cope’s argument rests on the claim that most Northern countries has been slight or stagnant: ‘The crucial change that the Global South? While some workers in the small formal has taken place over the past decade or so is that wages in sectorproduce, could but beare classed financed as outunproductive of, surplus – value. for example But what of low-cost countries have soared’ (19 January 2013). Ironically state employees – in the much larger informal sector the this has encouraged a limited ‘reshoring’ of manufacturing predominant form of labour – 70 percent in sub-Saharan back to the US where wage stagnation has made US Africa – is ‘self-employment and unpaid family work’. Strictly manufacturing slightly more competitive. speaking, this does not constitute productive labour either Of course, we are still quite a long way off from the since it does not involve what Marx called the ‘exchange of ‘equalisation of international wage rates’ but current capital for labour’ which is a precondition for such labour developments seem to be tending in that direction. In Asia, for being considered ‘productive’. example, wages have been growing annually nearly ten times However, to reiterate – being ‘unproductive’ does not mean not being exploited. ‘Being exploited’ does not depend on you being directly involved in producing surplus value but rather fasterMoreover, than in if the you world’s apply ‘purchasing richest nations power (Nikkei parity’ Asian exchange Review, on your functional contribution to a wider system of surplus 28 November 2018). extraction. of goods in different countries, the gap between rich and Furthermore, even if 80 percent of the world’s productive poorrates countriesto reflect thenarrows varying considerably. costs of buying Cope an himself identical notes basket labour is ‘performed in the Third World by workers earning that ‘according to calculations based on data compiled by the less than 10% of the wages of First World workers’, as Cope Union Bank of Switzerland, OECD wages have an average 3.4 claims, one should bear in mind that at least 80 percent of the times more purchasing power than non-OECD wages’ (p.163). world’s population lives in the Third World anyway. This is far less than the cited ratio of 1:11. This difference As for workers there earning less than 10 percent of can be adequately explained in terms of factors already the wages of First World workers we need to relate this to discussed such as differential productivity rates. But international differences in price levels. In this regard, the compared to the difference in purchasing power between position of Third Worldists comes across as muddled. capitalists and workers everywhere in the world, it is pretty negligible. It is this fundamental class division that the proponents producedOn the one by super-exploitedhand, we find Cope workers suggesting in the thatGlobal workers South; in on of Third Worldist ‘anti-imperialism’ wilfully obscure in their the otherGlobal we North are toldbenefit by himfrom that the ‘asultra-cheap soon as these prices goods for goods enter pointless pursuit of a reactionary nationalist agenda in an age into imperialist-country markets, their prices are multiplied of global capitalism. several fold, sometimes by as much as 1,000%’(p. 159). This ROBIN COX

Socialist Standard March 2021 15 Externalities and British Chicken in illegal deforestation but in this instance, and as an example, Brazil has widespread deforestation. Then, regarding the Externality – a consequence of an economic activity which legal soya supply chain between Brazil and the UK, Cargill admit prices (Oxford Concise English Dictionary) that their 2010 commitment to eliminate deforestation by 2020 has not been met, and now extends it to 2030 – which affectsBritish other chicken parties – annually without thisthe UKbeing slaughters reflected a inbillion market experts say is too late on the global warming agenda. Investigative Journalism) In 2006 there was a ban imposed by traders and chickens, about fifteen per person per annum. (Bureau of n effect an externality means acquiring something at a price production, but no such agreement for the Cerrado. As a international NGOs on felling trees in the Amazon for soya lower than necessary if negative effects were to be avoided result, it is now beef production that drives the deforestation or compensated for. A few common examples include such of the Amazon, both legal and illegal, whilst soya accounts for I the fast-growing deforestation of the Cerrado. acts as taking occupied land for other uses without agreement or full compensation; poisoning air, water or food of local inhabitants near mines, factories and industrial agricultural More examples sites; habitat destruction for industrial use; carbon offsets by This is just one example of the spider’s web-like tangle which companies in the richer countries pay for CO2 pollution between a commodity and an externality. When looked caused by them by funding reforestation and similar green projects in other countries. So let’s look here at just one aspect externalities. How much effect can just one community at in depth it seems the globe is an extensive minefield of of the UK’s involvement with some of these externalities of the millions of communities around the world have on connected to the rearing of these millions of chickens in their own particular problem? Consider some of the many Britain recently highlighted by the Bureau of Investigative negatives experienced by local communities in wildly Journalism. different circumstances and environments from the Arctic to The link begins between the giant corporation Cargill and the Sahara, east to west, north to south. Faster melting ice, a little heard of, but vast area, the Cerrado in Brazil which is being deforested at an alarming rate for the mass production increasing wild fires, severe weather problems, inundation of soya beans. Some 100,000 tonnes of these soya beans are used to feed those millions of British chickens each year. severeof low lyinghealth farmland problems; and rivers islands, poisoned filthy air by fromindustrial excessive and agriculturaltraffic, industries waste; and overuse coal burning of pesticides for electricity and herbicides causing for its capacity to store carbon dioxide. It is a crucial part of especially in intensive farming causing severe species decline; SouthThe Cerrado America’s is a watervast tropical system savannah and home hugely to many significant indigenous massive ocean pollution, especially plastics; microplastics, communities and endangered animals. It is an area smaller heavy metals and poisonous chemicals found in urine than the Amazon but has far weaker protections. Between samples in all ages of populations around the world. We are 2008 and 2012 the rate of forest loss in the Amazon slowed by mostly steered away from knowing about such problems, let 67 percent whilst the Cerrado forest continued to disappear alone thinking about them, by corporations using enormous at an alarming rate. There, in the decade to 2018, 95,000 sq amounts of money on advertising to draw us in to the many km of land was lost, 66 percent more than the Amazon which is three times its size. It now has only half of its original cover. products. The Cerrado region is estimated to account for 90 percent of benefitsThe divisions of buying, between using, populationseating and showing around theoff their world, soya-driven deforestation in Brazil. Covering more than 20 whether nationalism, racism, politics, or economic status, are percent of Brazil’s land size it is a huge carbon sink, critical not natural events. They have been deliberately forged over for eight of Brazil’s twelve river basins and is integral to the long periods of time by the powerful sectors seeking their hydroelectric power plants producing 80 percent of Brazil’s electricity. each country’s workers. Workers forced into competition with eachown interestsother to keep and profitstheir share whilst of creating the market, wedges their between share of employment, their chance of a decent wage and subsequently suppliersA Dutch in NGO the ‘Aidenveronment’Cerrado, and that hasthe confirmedalready huge vast area of blaming the other for unfairness and inequality. So where does monoculturedeforestation soya and firesis growing on land rapidly used or alongside owned by land-grabs Cargill and the responsibility lie? Do we stop eating chicken? How many violence. more of the thousands of examples like this could be brought In August 2020 a Bureau of Investigative Journalism team to our attention? tracked a bulk tanker carrying soya beans from Cargill and Without widespread understanding of at least some of the two other companies in the region from a port near the myriad connections – agricultural methods, global distribution Cerrado to Cargill’s soya plant in Liverpool. Here the beans chains, reporting of international agreements re carbon were processed at Cargills’s soya crushing plant and from capture and carbon credits payments, the very structure of there to Cargill’s poultry feed mills in Hereford and Banbury where a mixture of the soya with wheat and other ingredients populations supposed to understand that what they are is produced. This UK Cargill facility operates under the name eating,the capitalist wearing, system driving, - how buying are all and these using diverse could and be damaging far-flung of Avara, a joint enterprise with British producer Faccenda. other populations, environments and the world itself? What is desperately required is a global solution without all these whilst also being the largest fresh chicken supplier to Tesco. AvaraAnnually supplies the chickensUK slaughters to McDonalds, a billion chickens Asda, Lidl – aboutand Nando’s 15 global population share the brunt of all the basic problems per person, which accounts for about 60 percent of the UK’s asconflicting their interests and competitive are not those issues. of the The ruling vast elitesmajority and of the imported soya consumption. Probably an externality little corporations. Those in control of the system continue to known or thought about? keep us in check but we the people have to wake up to the Regarding deforestation it is possible that a UK company realisation that the future is in our hands. may have a declaration of no trade with companies involved JANET SURMAN

16 Socialist Standard March 2021 Traditional Dagomba Dress

noushka Alexander writes: governmental newspaper. His column was titled ‘The Dark activist, journalist and teacher died at home in the Gambia on 16 September 2020.Suhuyini He wasNbang-Ba, nine days socialist short use a pseudonym, he started receiving anonymous threats A File’ and targeted corrupt government officials. As he did not from the top echelons of Ghanaian society and from hit-men three nieces and four nephews. of the military dictatorship. Despite this he continued his of Suhuyinihis sixty-first was bornbirthday in the and small is survived town of by Ejura, a brother, near Kumasi a sister, political work. in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. He was, however, a Dagomba, When he could stand the threats no longer, and when the a member of the Muslim tribe of that name from Ghana’s on foot to the Gambia, having to sell the very shoes he was Yacabou, and known as M.Y. to his friends, but chose the wearingmilitary turnedto pay forup hisat his passage home andwhile to hebribe was border out, he guards. fled Northern Region. He was originally named Mohammed Once in the Gambia he continued his teaching and journalism. reclaiming his ancestry and history — his Muslim name could bename traced Suhuyini back toNbang-Ba colonisation in later of the life. Dagomba This was areaa political by traders act were rounded up by the military on suspicion of being between the 12th and 15th centuries. Instead, Suhuyini involvedDuring in this a failed period, coup five attempt; of Suhuyini’s all of closethem Gambiandied while friends being chose a name in his mother tongue, Dagbani — ‘Suhuyini’ that they had died when the car they were in crashed, but the ‘I know them’— a reference to his ancestors and the act of circumstancestransported between surrounding prisons. the Officials event were claimed suspicious at the time and his reclaimingmeaning ‘unity’ them (literally embodied ‘one in heart’)changing and his ‘Nbang-Ba’ name. In fact, meaning having previously been very religious and renowned for his journalism in the Gambia. piety, as a young man in the early eighties he renounced Islam fearsHowever, for his Suhuyinisafety led continued to Suhuyini his finally political giving work up by his writing political and publicly denounced both the activities of certain Muslim for publications based outside West Africa. He became a leaders and religion in general. member of the Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB) and As a schoolboy, Suhuyini was sent to live with his aunt in the contributed articles to the party’s journal Socialist Standard. north so he could attend Tamale Secondary School. He was He also edited a magazine of the SPGB called African Socialist also educated at the prestigious University of Ghana, Legon, which was later renamed Socialist Banner. where he took his undergraduate degree and then later began At the time of his death Suhuyini was working on a book of an MPhil in African and European history. While at university, essays, despite limited access to a computer and an erratic he became very active politically and was a member of the electricity supply. Although the hospital did not give a cause United Revolutionary Front (URF), an underground anarchist of death, he had been increasingly weak for a year with little movement opposed to the military junta led by Jerry John appetite. Rawlings. However, Suhuyini later opposed armed struggle. I came to know Suhuyini in the late nineties when he During his time as an undergraduate, he was beaten up by the military, hospitalised and placed under house arrest due to and French at secondary school and working at the Weekly the student union’s opposition to the military junta. Insightwas living. Here in Nsawam,he was known Ghana, by teaching pupils and English teachers literature alike by Suhuyini then spent two years as a teacher back in the yet another name: Afah, a Dagomba word meaning a Muslim teacher. This name had sprung up spontaneously and was impoverished women and a drama troupe. indicative of the respect in which his pupils and colleagues NorthernIn the late Region, eighties, also when setting the up ruling a self-help regime association introduced for held him. District Assemblies to lend a semblance of democracy to the Tellingly, it was not widely known outside his home region that Suhuyini was born into Dagomba royalty. In fact I doubt membersdictatorship, of the Suhuyini Tamale contested District Assembly the Nalung (a Constituencysort of district seat was the sub-chief of the tribe and he was the only son of his parliament.)and won 75 percent of the vote. He became one of the first mother,any of his the colleagues tribal queen. in Nsawam However, knew when of Suhuyinithis fact. Hisbecame father an After his time in the north, Suhuyini returned to Accra atheist he also chose not to inherit the chieftaincy and he kept to take his MPhil. While studying for this he joined the his royal lineage as secret as possible. I only became aware of communist Weekly Insight newspaper as a reporter and it myself at the school where we both taught when one of his columnist; the Insight was at that time the only non- pupils, also a Dagomba, prostrated herself on the ground

Socialist Standard March 2021 17 before him as a sign of respect. Suhuyini quickly told her to over the intervening years helped form the political beliefs I get up and that she did not need to do this. It was only when still hold today. pressed by me that he explained the meaning behind her Indeed, Suhuyini left his mark on everyone he met. He held actions, otherwise he would not have mentioned it. strong views, yet was always willing to hear others out — This was typical of the man. There are some people who debates never became rows — and with his humanity, sharp make a show of espousing socialism in theory, but fall short wit and easy, infectious laugh he enriched the life of all who of its principles in the way they live their lives. This was never knew him, no matter which name they knew him by. He is true of Suhuyini — his political views were deeply held and deeply missed by those he left behind and the world is a lesser stemmed from his character; he lived socialist principles. place without him. Unlike some of his nominally socialist colleagues in West Africa, he refused to bribe his way into a lucrative post, and loved one, born 25 September 1959; died 16 September preferring to remain a poorly-paid teacher with his principles 2020.Suhuyini The articles Nbang-Ba, he wrote political for campaigner,the Socialist journalist,Standard can teacher be intact. He tenaciously battled depression, ill-health and found here: tinyurl.com/7pnwtlba constant technical problems to work on his political writing, and throughout his life he campaigned tirelessly, experiencing violence and risking death many times for his principles. More than that, Suhuyini treated everyone he met as an equal and spoke to everybody with the same friendly respect, from the highest born to the most lowly street-seller. While education, even though the child was no relation, out of pureteaching compassion. in Nsawam He he sponsored sponsored a child a schoolboy again later through in the his Gambia, despite his own limited means. When he died in the Gambia, the family where he rented a room told me he had been like a son to his landlady and like a second father to her grandchildren, who knew him affectionately as ‘Baba.’ him I was seventeen, and my discussions with him then and He certainly had a life-long effect on me. When I first met COOKING THE BOOKS

Capitalism cannot be reset I suppose it’s good to see more Just to be clear here, this After the ‘Great Reset’ was proposed conversation, especially when it comes stakeholder capitalism is defined as last June the only people to take any to the environment, but the very fact ‘a system in which corporations are notice were conspiracists who saw it that the limits of debate have been set oriented to serve the interests of all as a plan by a cabal of world leaders and that this is really about preserving their stakeholders. Among the key to impose a ‘New World Order’ with capitalism, even though they want stakeholders are consumers, suppliers, the ‘plandemic’ as the first step. to create some idealized version of employees, shareholders, and local This is nonsense but the proposal to it called stakeholder capitalism, all communities. Under this system, ‘reset’ capitalism is not much better, this simply reveals another well- a company’s purpose is to create as is explained in the same way as we meaning pro-establishment spasm long-term value and not to maximize would in this extract from a podcast in the end. No different than all the profits, and enhance shareholder by Peter Joseph on 20 January (tinyurl. climate conferences and biodiversity value at the cost of other stakeholder com/y2omdvzm). conferences that accomplish nothing groups.’ I’m not even going to address “The great reset was put forward because everyone refuses to look at the insurmountable idealism in that by Klaus Schwab, the head of the the system structure as the actual vague description other than to say, World Economic Forum, if I remember problem, the economic system. It’s you can never take the core incentive correctly. He started talking about actually quite comical if you think out of the system if the system this around the beginning of about it, ‘We want to change the remains in any respect or form. It COVID-19 in early 2020. Here’s what world, but not capitalism.’ is nonsensical to say that somehow it says on their actual website, ‘To And of course this notion of corporations are going to orient achieve a better outcome, the world stakeholder capitalism is one from a themselves respecting everybody in must act jointly and swiftly to revamp long line of nonsensical, qualifying this kind of stakeholder environment all aspects of our societies and adjectives that people amend before and the ecosystem without economies, from education to social the word capitalism to try and pretend maximization of profit and hence, contracts and working conditions. like some sub distinction would ever exploitation. You can’t have capitalism Every country from the United States make a meaningful difference. You see without exploitation and profit and to China must participate, and every all over the place, crony capitalism, hence, exploitation. If those things are industry from oil and gas, to tech, responsible capitalism, vulture removed, then you’re in a completely must be transformed. In short, we capitalism, the social entrepreneur. different system by default. need a great reset of capitalism.’ Yes, My favorite is conscious capitalism, So this great reset thing is just another the great reset of capitalism. Which as if it ever could be given the very spasm, a well-meaning joke, a ploy in makes no sense at all since capitalism nature and incentives of the structure, fact to sort of pretend like we can make is actually the fundamental problem, once again. It doesn’t matter who’s capitalism better when all empirical affecting sustainability and all other in the positions. It matters what the evidence shows that we cannot.” such issues that this great reset structural incentives are. professes to address.

18 Socialist Standard February 2021 An Emotional History ADAM CURTIS’S latest documentary, Mao Zedong takes up much less screen- from Trinidad in 1957. He found work Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (BBC time than his wife, Jiang Qing, who, like as an enforcer for notorious slum iPlayer), is a fascinating watch, weaving the documentary’s other main players, landlord Peter Rachman, and discovered together eight hours of archive footage, held a pivotal role which might otherwise a callousness behind British society. music and narration, delivered in Curtis’s stay underacknowledged and which Renamed Michael X, he joined the Black serious, concerned style. expresses wider trends. Power movement in Notting Hill. His The six-part series describes itself as ‘an Jiang Qing wielded considerable activism led to him being sent to prison emotional history of the modern world’, influence during China’s ‘Cultural for inciting racial hatred (at the same time telling how fear and paranoia shaped Revolution’ of the 1960s and 70s, as Enoch Powell made his racist speeches global events since the start of the Cold including over state propaganda, and as an MP) and when he was released he War. In Britain, this took the form of in which enemies of the government found that his previous support among post-colonial racism and retreating into a and herself were hunted down by the white liberals had gone. They had instead romanticised vision of village greens and Red Guards militia. Mao turned on turned their energies to setting up red telephone boxes. America promoted Qing, having used her to destroy his community centres, which made Michael itself as proudly individualistic, defined opponents. She was one of the Gang of believe that now, black people in Notting against the image of Soviet citizens as Four, a faction of the Chinese Communist Hill were being treated as subjects to a grey, uniform mass. But America’s Party who were convicted of treasonous measure and manage by liberals with their individualists were living in anonymous offences soon after Mao’s death in 1976. own position to protect. He decided to set suburbs, numbed by post-Vietnam Qing is portrayed as ruthless, ambitious up short-lived communes where, Curtis anxieties and suppressed by valium, and individualistic, her approach just a tells us, he reverted to old ways to gain oxycontin and crack cocaine. The brutal reaction against existing power networks influence he learnt working for Rachman – without changing anything fundamental. regimes in China and Russia replaced extortion and violence. The same applies to Mao’s successor their figureheads and spoke of progress, From the mid-1960s, Afeni Shakur was Deng Xiaoping with his economic reforms, but each new set of rulers operated prominent in the New York Black Panthers, with the same divisive motivations making it clear by the Tiananmen Square a group infiltrated and pushed towards a as their predecessors. The ideologies protests of 1989 that if China no longer bombing campaign by undercover police. which propped up society were based even pretends to believe in democracy Her son, Tupac, later aimed to revive the on misconceptions and antagonisms, what does it believe in apart from money? movement through his music. He began resulting in aggression. The other people featured in the series by wanting to turn hostility outwards According to Curtis, then came the are mostly radicals and would-be radicals, from gang culture to be directed at those failure of world leaders to predict the including Eduard Limonov, Michael X, who oppress, but ended up being more fall of the Soviet Union, and the later and Afeni and Tupac Shakur. Through cynical and self-promoting. According realisation of the threat of climate change, each of their stories Curtis explains how to Curtis, he intensified aggression which further weakened confidence to they all set out to challenge those with explain events using stories or ideologies, power, but they revealed old conflicts rather than changing anything, driven by unless they were conspiracy theories. lurking underneath, fuelled by anger and individualism. Abstract systems were increasingly used to resentment. And each failed because they As with his prior film try and rationalise a chaotic world. When couldn’t or wouldn’t escape from the HyperNormalisation (2016), Curtis argues computers harvest and process data they power structures they knew. that lacking a vision of a different, future can find patterns, but they can’t link them Eduard Limonov was a Russian society holds back real change, both together as stories, and therefore meaning dissident who lived for a time in a poor on a personal and collective level. The is irrelevant. And where data-processing neighbourhood in 70s New York, the characters he describes failed because is applied, it’s used to watch over, control setting of his novel It’s Me, Eddie. This of this, only acting within existing or manipulate people. So although the argued that people think they are free antagonistic frameworks. Unfortunately, technology is new, the aim remains to and living in a democracy, but it’s all a Curtis doesn’t go into enough detail about exercise power. sham and we follow the rules set by the what these structures are. He hasn’t Curtis’s style of film-making counters money system. Despite this promising taken the next step, on screen at least, the data-crunching method, as he follows view, Limonov slid into believing that of directly criticising the economic root the personal stories which emerge nationalism is the way to convey collective causes of power struggles, nor explaining from our experiences of authority. The strength. So, after returning to Russia he what kind of future society he would characters he chooses to illustrate his founded the National Bolshevik Party as a advocate. Despite this, and his loose use points aren’t those you’d expect; Margaret grim fusion of fascism and ‘communism’, of the term ‘revolution’, Can’t Get You Out Thatcher, for example, only appears briefly with the goal of reawakening oppressive Of My Head is refreshingly provocative, to tell us about her preferred way of ideas. and worth getting into your head. ironing the hem of a dress. Chinese leader Michael de Freitas arrived in London MIKE FOSTER Socialist Standard March 2021 19 Blue Labour throughout, giving this book its tiresomely and selling system on behalf of the owners of repetitive feel: patriotism, tradition, custom, capital and, even if they are able to take over order, stability, flag, family, faith, identity, some aspects of it (as suggested by Embery), community, belonging. they cannot control it, as has been shown Almost equally countless are his time and time again by the continuous ups repetitions of a particular set of tired, and downs brought about by what Marx hackneyed terms often used by those called ‘the anarchy of the market’. on the right of the capitalist political So though the author calls himself ‘a spectrum to seek to vilify their opponents: democratic socialist’ and says he wants liberal wokedom, virtue signalling, identity ‘to address the injustices of the world’, politics, woke left, cosmopolitan elite, his conception of how society should progressivism – or more or less any be run is a contradictory mishmash. He combination of these words. These are the advocates a ‘strengthening of the nation terms he uses to denote forces he sees as state’, state control of utilities and such standing in the way of those traditional like, a government policy of ‘jobs for working-class values. everyone’ and economic protectionism, Yet this book is a funny mixture. Its yet at the same time he calls for writer is ‘a firefighter and trade union internationalism, for a ‘flourishing private Paul Embery: Despised. Why activist’ and an adherent of so-called ‘blue sector’ and insists that markets are the Modern Left Loathes the Labour’. He proclaims himself ‘left-wing’ ‘essential to the functioning of a free and Working Class. and makes it clear that he is on the side democratic society’. Polity. 2021. 218pp. of the workers in their endeavours to The author proclaims himself a socialist improve pay and conditions. So it can but would do better to look at a more be said that he recognises the struggle meaningful conception of socialism, one This is a relatively short book but halfway for a bigger share of the cake that the that aims for a world without the market through it I wondered if I could bear capitalist system creates between those system, without buying and selling, reading any more. Why? Well, it’s certainly who own most of the wealth and those without money or wages, and based on not badly written or hard going. In fact it’s who own little but their ability to work. voluntary work, common ownership and written in a congenially informal style that But his solution is for workers to be democratic control. In such a society the makes it easy to read and understand. But represented by a Party, a reformed Labour narrow ‘cultural’ and class differences the trouble (or one of its troubles) is that Party, that tilts things in their direction he sees as fundamental between people it’s endlessly repetitive, simply going over and opposes the encroachments of global of one kind of background and another, the same ground time and time again, capital on their economic wellbeing. He between people of one country of origin repeating the same polemic and even proclaims himself fiercely pro-Brexit, or another, will disappear and give way using the same words to express it. seeing that vote as an indication that to positive cultural diversity and real What does it actually argue? Basically the working class (in his definition) was economic equality based on a system of that the Labour Party is finished if it fed up with the ‘shackles of the EU’, with from each according to ability, to each doesn’t manage to bring back to its fold the ‘woke’ culture of Labour’s political according to need. the so-called ‘red wall’ of voters who elite, with the Party’s failure to respect HOWARD MOSS deserted it in the Brexit referendum and workers’ traditional culture and values in the 2019 General Election. These are (patriotism, etc.) and with its embrace of the voters the author identifies as the ‘progressivism’, globalisation and ‘neo- ‘working class’ (defined as those who liberal’ economic policies. do ‘physical labour or work in blue- Some of this could be seen as well collar industries, factories, call centres, meaning, but it asks all the wrong questions retail or frontline public services’) who and buys into a whole range of myths about have traditionally been the backbone of class, race, the nature of government and Labour’s support in urban Britain and much else. Above all it entirely misses the from which background, as he frequently point about the struggle between workers reminds us, he himself comes. and capitalists. It makes no sense to qualify These people, Embery contends, have as working class only those who do manual moved away from Labour because it has work or are in lower paid jobs. The reality, as become a Party dominated by a middle-class even at one point the author comes close to elite hostile to traditional working-class recognising (but then dismisses), is that all values and favourable to globalisation, mass those who sell their energies for a wage or immigration and identity politics. According salary are workers. They are all in the same to the author, it needs to move back to basic position vis-à-vis their employer and embrace and represent those working- all susceptible to losing their employment class values and only by so doing will it and so their means of living if the market win back that core of traditional support determines it. No government, left, right and again become an electoral force. The or centre, can do much about that even if words he uses to describe those ‘values’ are they would like to, for in the final analysis among those repeated over and over again governments exist to administer the buying

20 Socialist Standard March 2021 Not the alternative involves worker-owned cooperatives outstripped supply. The method that producing for sale on a market, which Kelton promotes to regulate this spending means that they will have to at least break is a government jobs guarantee scheme, even, with money spent being balanced so that full employment is maintained at by money from sales, while free services all times. If private sector employment will have to be financed from taxes. The drops, the government jobs scheme kicks objection to this is not that it wouldn’t be in to offer employment, at a minimum better than what exists now but that it rate. As the economy recovers, people wouldn’t work, at least not as intended. leave the job scheme, attracted by private Market forces would still control things sector wages. and, since in practice the cooperatives This is, then, unlike the Keynsian would have to aim to make a monetary prescription, in that MMT encourages surplus (aka profit), eventually lead to a government spending at any stage of return to capitalism as we know it. the business cycle, rather than cutting ALB spending during the upswing and borrowing during the recession. Muddled Money Theory The core premise of MMT is banally true: the state can always issue more Why America Needs Socialism. money in its own currency. There is a By G.S. Griffin. Ig Publishing, question of just how much scope there New York, 2019. is for increasing state spending before inflation kicks in, and Kelton certainly seems to write a lot of cheques against that spending capacity: healthcare, It wasn’t a bad idea to introduce socialism university education, pensions, etc. to Americans prejudiced against it, by She seems to imply that the current quoting people and writers they know models, wherein the state is assumed of such as Einstein, Martin Luther King, to be funded through taxation and Helen Keller, Mark Twain, Jack London, borrowing, are simply an error, rather Upton Sinclair, George Orwell, all of whom than representing the ideological form of made criticisms of capitalism as a system the interests of the owners of money and based on inequality and production capital. for profit. Technically, this is the invalid Before 1971 other currencies had a ‘argument from authority’ but Griffin The deficit myth: modern fixed rate of exchange with the dollar and puts their quotes to good use to back up monetary theory and how to build the dollar was convertible into gold at the his argument against capitalism, at least a better economy,By Stephanie fixed rate of $35 an ounce. This provided against private capitalism. Kelton; John Murray Publishers, an indirect link between a currency and The facts he presents are referenced in 2020. ISBN 9781529352528 gold. The currencies themselves, however, 70 pages of footnotes. All the same, there were not convertible into gold and states are a few inaccuracies. In 1936 the Spanish could issue as much as they wanted. To You may have read or heard about people did not rise up against the fascist the extent that they over-issued them this dictator Franco; Franco rose up against Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), led to inflation and in the end to a formal the elected Republican government. The which has become popular in some devaluation of their exchange rate with Mondragon cooperative had nothing to do left-wing circles as a means for justifying the dollar. with any Marxist tradition in Spain; it was government spending programmes. In When this ‘gold exchange standard’ set up under Franco by a Catholic priest. essence, it affirms that any state that can was abandoned by the US in 1971 the When it comes to describing the issue its own inconvertible (fiat) currency, commodity origin of currencies was alternative to capitalism, what Griffin cannot go bankrupt (so long as it only completely disguised, giving rise to the (a member of the Democratic Socialists borrows in its own currency). illusion on which MMT is based that of America) sees as socialism, the book This leads to a model of the state in money is entirely a creation of a state. fails. He describes socialism as a society which it is not reliant on taxation nor Since then currencies have floated up and ‘full of cooperatives’; all places of work – borrowing to spend. Taxes, for MMT, are down against each other in accordance factories, farms, offices, shops, transport, merely a means for driving demand for with the demand for them, for instance hospitals, schools, colleges, theatres – are the state-issued currency, and any money to pay for imports. An increase in their to be owned and run by those working in paid in tax is effectively destroyed. All supply was still liable, if excessive, to them. This would not be socialism, as in a state spending is simply the issuing of cause inflation. The result wasn’t a formal socialist society the means of life would be newly created money. The national debt devaluation, simply a downwards float vis- owned by society as a whole and not by is simply a different form of money that à-vis other currencies. those who worked in them. Society-wide attracts interest in the normal money To an extent, the commodity origin is common ownership allows production the state issues. The national debt, in still relevant because the state monopoly to be geared directly to meeting people’s this model, is merely a means to regulate of fiat currency is not absolute. People needs; the question to solve is then not to interest rates. can abandon pounds or dollars by buying sell what has been produced but how to The only limit to state spending, for foreign currencies or value-bearing distribute it to where it is needed. MMT, is the availability of resources commodities (in a crisis, the price of Certainly, in socialism workplaces will in the real economy. These limits only gold shoots up, as people buy gold to try be democratically run by those working become evident through the appearance and protect the value of their assets). in them but they won’t be their property. of inflation: prices would begin to rise Contrary to Kelton’s assertion, the banks Griffin’s scheme, on the other hand, as demand from government spending do not have to buy the national debt, they Socialist Standard March 2021 21 have other options, but it has to remain consume resources (as a state) all the cut into the profits the capitalists make attractive, and the currency has to retain resources employed by the state cannot (and this would happen without causing confidence. be employed by private capital to produce inflation, since the demand would simply Further, her dismissal of ‘crowding profits. Whether this transfer really comes be transferring effective demand from out’ theory only goes so far. The usual from borrowing, taxation or from creating one pocket to another). This would likely idea of crowding out is that government money is moot, the fact remains that from result in a capital strike occasioning a form borrowing attracts investable capital a capitalist’s perspective, state spending is of economic crisis. Just as likely, the state and pushes up interest rates, making it a threat to their profitability. This means might be called in, as it was under the harder for private sector businesses to less wealth overall is created for the state Keynesian nostrums, to regulate wages find investment and thus damping down to commandeer. and use its job guarantee to control wage overall economic growth. Kelton argues The same can be said for a jobs levels. that the state can effectively set its own guarantee. It is useful for Kelton to tell us To the extent that Kelton talks about interest rates for borrowing, and can thus that the US Federal Reserve sees it as part looking past money to think about real borrow and hold down interest rates at the of its role to deliberately sustain a certain economic resources and how they can be same time. level of unemployment in order to control commanded for the interests of the whole To an extent that is true, but only inflation. While she sees this as the result community, she is on the right path. The within broad limits governed by general of mistaken theory, we would see it as lever of state-issued money is insufficient. confidence in the security of the part of the essential features of capitalism. The distortion of money markets would government debt. With international Capitalism relies on the lash of the threat get in the way of that. Likewise, simply money markets, setting the interest of poverty and unemployment in order to seeing the problem as a misunderstanding rate too low or too high would make sustain its profitability for the capitalists, of theory, rather than actual contesting the currency a target for speculation, as as well as having a buffer of laid-off class interests, is a greater barrier than any people would move their assets into or workers in reserve for the next boom. theory of how the state is financed. out of the country. Further, leaving interest A job guarantee scheme would see PIK SMEET rates to one side, as the state can only wages pushed up to the point where they

competitive prices on the world market. Because the popular front government is responsible 50 Years Ago for Chile’s capitalist economy, inevitably it is being brought into conflict with the workers and peasants. Already there Marxism in Chile? have been several strikes, some involving the occupation of Salvador Allende is not the first president of Chile factories, both in the capital Santiago and in the provinces. to proclaim himself a revolutionary. When Allende’s In December 1970 telephone workers in Santiago took over predecessor, the Christian Democrat Frei, was elected in the central telephone building and held some hostages, 1964 he pledged himself to a ‘revolution in liberty’. Two calling for the immediate introduction of new salary scales years later found him sending in the army to break a strike which the government said it would introduce in time. in the copper mines; eight people were killed. As Fidel In the same month three thousand municipal workers Castro rather neatly put it: ‘He promised revolution without stopped work for 48 hours after demanding pay rises which blood and has given blood without revolution.’ the ‘Communist’ Minister of Finance refused, while fifteen Like Allende, Frei was elected on the strength of thousand administrative workers were on strike too. his promises to solve two basic problems. Firstly the (Socialist Standard, March 1971) concentration of land in the hands of a few vastly wealthy families while 350,000 peasants have no land at all. And secondly the domination of Chile’s economy by foreign (mainly American) capital, which is held to be responsible for the chronic unemployment in the country (currently running at about 7 percent) and the destitution of a large section of the population (one half of all families live on less than thirty dollars a month). (…) Allende’s Chile, just like any other country operating within the world capitalist economy, will have to compete on the international markets to sell its products. The prices of its commodities can be made competitive only by Chile keeping abreast of world developments in industrial innovation, by constantly reinvesting in new plant — by constantly accumulating capital. And this can be done only by Chile’s industries — whether nationalised or not — pumping surplus value out of the working class. That these ‘external coercive laws’ are continuing to operate was made quite clear in a radio speech by the new President when he announced that daily production of coal is to be stepped up from 3,800 tons to 4,700 tons — and then called on the Salvador Allende miners to make sacrifices so that Chile’s coal can be sold at

22 Socialist Standard March 2021 Meetings All Socialist Party meetings/talks/discussions are currently online on Discord. Please contact the Forum Administrator on [email protected] for how to join. REVOLUTION (UNLESS WE GET 7 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULDN’T MARCH 2021 THERE FIRST) WATCH ‘THE WALKING DEAD’ DISCORD EVENTS Speaker: Carla Dee Box-set bingeing is the new pandemic The market system is in chaos and seems norm, but what ideological messages are Wednesday 3 March no longer fit for purpose, even for the 1%. we soaking up as we’re stretching out “DID YOU SEE THE NEWS?” 19.30 GMT How will our power structure survive? with a beer on the sofa? Here’s one fun General current affairs discussion What’s behind our politicians opportunistic but insidious example as a case study. Friday 5 March pandemic slogans like ‘the system’s not Friday 26 March FRIDAY NIGHT TALK, 19.30 GMT working’ and ‘build back better’? FRIDAY NIGHT TALK, 19.30 GMT FAME AND FORTUNE Wednesday 17 March INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS Speaker: Mike Foster THE FAQ WORKSHOP, 19.30 GMT Speaker: Andy Thomas Celebrity status isn’t just reserved for SOCIALIST DESERT ISLAND DISCS How the digital revolution hit the a distant few; thanks to social media We’ve talked books, now it’s time to printing industry and how it swept and ‘reality TV’ any of us can have the talk music. What are the bands and away traditional craft skills (typesetting, opportunity to be famous with millions tunes that most inspire socialists? Paul platemaking etc). It demonstrated of fans. This widening of the definition Edwards presents. many of the key features of industrial of ‘celebrity’, and also the technological Friday 19 March revolution: destruction of traditional changes in how we consume the media, FRIDAY NIGHT TALK, 19.30 GMT skills and the unionisation that went with have been fuelled by what makes the WHAT IS POST-SCARCITY? it; temporary restoration of the rate of most money. This talk looks at the Podcast by Peter Joseph followed by profit; automation and AI increasingly economic power which celebrity status discussion. Many apologists for capitalism replacing human intervention with attracts, and also what this means for are claiming, as they did in the 1960s, implications for accelerating future both celebs and ourselves. that technological developments under industrial revolutions (eg the ‘lights out’ Sunday 7 March, 18.00 GMT capitalism will gradually lead to a society printing plant). Such revolutions also raise CENTRAL BRANCH MEMBERS’ MEETING of leisure and abundance. Peter Joseph many interesting questions about what Wednesday 10 March explains why this won’t and can’t happen kind of manual skills might we want to THE FAQ WORKSHOP, 19.30 GMT and also looks at what ‘post-scarcity’ keep in a socialist society and why. LEADERS AND LEADERSHIP? means. Does it means ‘a universal Wednesday 31 March Socialists oppose leaders, but what about abundance of everything’ or the technically OPEN MIC NIGHT, 19.30 GMT leadership and do we really understand efficient, non-wasteful use of resources to A chance for non-members to have a say. what it means? satisfy what people need for a healthy life? We hear from Tony, an anarchist and IWW Friday 12 March Wednesday 24 March member, who will give us some thoughts FRIDAY NIGHT TALK, 19.30 GMT THE FAQ WORKSHOP, 19.30 GMT on the syndicalist perspective, followed TECHNOCRACY: SWERVING A by discussion. Declaration of Principles

This declaration is the basis of our organisation and, because it is the last class to achieve its freedom, the emancipation of the also an important historical document dating from the formation of working class will involve the emancipation of all mankind, without the party in 1904, its original language has been retained. distinction of race or sex. Object 5. That this emancipation must be the work of the working class itself. The establishment of a system of society based upon the common 6. That as the machinery of government, including the armed forces ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments of the nation, exists only to conserve the monopoly by the capitalist for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of the class of the wealth taken from the workers, the working class must whole community. organize consciously and politically for the conquest of the powers of government, national and local, in order that this machinery, Declaration of Principles including these forces, may be converted from an instrument of The Socialist Party of Great Britain holds oppression into the agent of emancipation and the overthrow of 1. That society as at present constituted is based upon the privilege, aristocratic and plutocratic. ownership of the means of living (i.e. land, factories, railways, etc.) 7. That as all political parties are but the expression of class interests, by the capitalist or master class, and the consequent enslavement and as the interest of the working class is diametrically opposed to of the working class, by whose labour alone wealth is produced. the interests of all sections of the master class, the party seeking 2. That in society, therefore, there is an antagonism of interests, working class emancipation must be hostile to every other party. manifesting itself as a class struggle between those who possess but 8. The Socialist Party of Great Britain, therefore, enters the field of do not produce and those who produce but do not possess. political action determined to wage war against all other political 3. That this antagonism can be abolished only by the emancipation parties, whether alleged labour or avowedly capitalist, and calls of the working class from the domination of the master class, by upon the members of the working class of this country to muster the conversion into the common property of society of the means under its banner to the end that a speedy termination may be of production and distribution, and their democratic control by wrought to the system which deprives them of the fruits of their the whole people. labour, and that poverty may give place to comfort, privilege to 4. That as in the order of social evolution the working class is equality, and slavery to freedom.

Socialist Standard March 2021 23 Court jesters to lock ourselves down. I don’t expect to catastrophe to fool us. Let us not side with As of 30 January 2021, more than 102 announce any lockdown because our God our countries or one flavour of politician million cases of COVID-19 have been is living and He will continue to protect – let us unite in the class war – and let us confirmed, and over 2.2 million deaths Tanzanians’ ...’We will also continue to see through the luxury the political, media, attributed to the disease. Given that take health precautions including the use and business bourgeoisie enjoy for what the knowledge and resources exist to of steam inhalation. You inhale while you they really are – scared and incompetent’ reduce the number of epidemics and pray to God, you pray while farming maize, (rt.com, 28 January). potatoes, so that you can eat well and minimise the possibility of them becoming Social justice or socialism? pandemics, the vast majority of these corona fails to enter your body. They will deaths can be considered premature. scare you a lot, my fellow Tanzanians, but In an open letter to South Africa’s current Little wonder then that some people you should stand firm’ (yahoo.com, president, billionaire Cyril Ramaphosa, think ‘It is time to impanel a citizens’ 27 January). entitled ‘Maybe there should be different laws for the ruling elite and ordinary tribunal to investigate the utter failure ANC Inc. of the governments of Boris Johnson, citizens’ (news24.com, 25 January), Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, Narendra Dikeledi Molatol, a ‘social justice activist’, Modi, and others to break the chain of writes: ‘Perhaps what should happen, Mr the infection of COVID-19. Such a tribunal President, is that you and your Cabinet would collect the factual information that must just consider declaring special laws would ensure that we do not allow these and regulations for elites and your fellow states to tamper with the crime scene; the politicians in the ANC, and different tribunal would provide the ICC with a firm ones to govern us, ordinary citizens. In foundation to do a forensic investigation that way we will stop being under the of this crime against humanity when illusion that we are all equal before the its own political suffocation is eased’ law and all committed to combatting (counterpunch.org, 22 January). this pandemic.’ King Zuma has his Supporters of this approach take the palace and shares responsibility for the short-sighted view that the prosecution Marikana massacre with Ramaphosa. of a motley crew of misleaders is enough. Anti-apartheid activist and Nobel Peace They are but temporary pustules on the Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu ever-hungry, profit-chasing beast whose said of the ANC: ‘They stopped the tentacles reach across the world. gravy train just long enough to get on themselves.’ He went on describe the Master of puppets Zuma administration as ‘worse than The vast majority of the working class Thabo Mbeki the apartheid government’ and that he fail to see the beast and blindly support would ‘pray for the downfall of the ANC.’ capitalism. None of them can escape South Africa today is the most unequal responsibility for the consequences. Thabo Mbeki, the former president of society in the world - economic apartheid For the power wielded by the rulers South Africa (1999-2008), once compared persists for millions. How many more of world capitalism is a reflection of AIDS scientists to Nazi concentration presidents will come and go before the the political ignorance of the working camp doctors and viewed black people billions see that you cannot change the class everywhere. It is absurd to blame who accepted orthodox AIDS science nature of the capitalist beast, and as long misleaders, particulary those elected as ‘self-repressed’ victims of a slave as we continue to feed it, war and want, by millions of us. The depth of that mentality. He saw the ‘HIV/AIDS thesis’ as pestilence and famine will persist? ignorance was shown recently when after entrenched in ‘centuries-old white racist beliefs and concepts about Africans’. four years as president of USA Inc., the Cyril Mbeki promoted alternative remedies cockwomble Trump received more than Ramaphosa 74 million votes. Tanzania’s equally odious such as vinegar rather than antiretroviral President Magufuli also got there with our drugs (ARVs) which saved the state’s funds support. It was reported that he recently at a cost of up to 365,000 lives. Winnie stated ‘...that no lockdown was planned Mandela to her credit ‘.. said to president because God would protect people from Mbeki: ‘Why are ARVs not toxic for the COVID-19 while homespun precautions members in Parliament who are taking such as steam inhalation were better than them but toxic for the poor?’’ Members vaccines. ‘Vaccines are not good. If they of the 99 percent have also called for him were, then the white man would have to be tried for crimes against humanity. brought vaccines for HIV/AIDS,’ he said in a Others, less myopic, have pierced the speech in western Tanzania, contradicting miasma of misinformation: ‘The working the global scientific consensus and advice class all over the world have far more from the World Health Organization in common with each other than they (WHO). Tanzania has officially reported a do with the bourgeoisie in business, total number of 509 COVID-19 infections politics and the media within their own and 21 deaths, WHO data shows, but borders. Covid-19 has taken millions it has not updated the figures for more from us – but we cannot allow the global than six months. ‘We Tanzanians haven’t bourgeoisie to play their divisive games locked ourselves in and we don’t expect using nationalism, or narratives of political

ISSN 0037 8259 Published by the Socialist Party, 52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UN Tel: 0207 622 3811 24 Email: [email protected] Website: www.worldsocialism.org/spgb Blog: http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/ Socialist Standard March 2021