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Socialist Standard July 2015 1 Contact Details SPGB Media: [email protected] socialist UK BRANCHES & CONTACTS Newtownabbey : Nigel McCullough. Tel: 028 90852062. LONDON North London branch . Meets 3rd Thursday SCOTLAND standard 8pm at Torriano Meeting House, 99 Torriano Edinburgh branch . Meets1st Thur. 7.00- Ave, NW5 2RX 9.00pm. The Quaker Hall, Victoria Terrace Contact: [email protected] or 020 (above Victoria Street), Edinburgh. JULY 2015 7609 0983 J. Moir. Tel: 0131 440 0995. South London branch . Meets 1st Tues. [email protected] Branch 7.00pm. Head Offi ce. 52 Clapham High St, website: SW4 7UN. Tel: 020 7622 3811 http://geocities.com/edinburghbranch/ contents West London branch . Meets 1st & 3rd Tues. Glasgow branch . Meets 3rd Wednesday of FEATURES 8pm. Chiswick Town Hall, Heathfi eld Terrace each month at 8pm in Community Central (corner Sutton Court Rd), W4. Corres: 51 Halls, 304 Maryhill Road, Glasgow. Peter Liberty, Levelling & Lies 5 Gayford Road, London W12 9BY. Tel: 020 Hendrie, 75 Lairhills Road, East Kilbride, 8740 6677. Email: [email protected] Glasgow G75 0LH. Tel: 01355 903105. Email: [email protected]. Confessions of a baby 10 MIDLANDS Dundee . Ian Ratcliffe, 12 Finlow Terrace boomer West Midlands Regional branch . Meets last Dundee, DD4 9NA, Tel 01382 698297 Sunday of the month, 3.00pm, the Briar Rose Labour 1945 12 pub, 25 Bennetts Hill, Birmingham B2 5RE. Kilmarnock .Meets last Thursday of month (Check before attending). E-Mail:vincent. 7pm-9pm at the Wheatsheaf pub (about 2 [email protected]. Tel:01242 675357 minutes from bus station). Paul Edwards. Tel: Underconsumptionism 13 01563 541138. Email:rainbow3@btopenworld. NORTHEAST com Identity 15 Northeast branch . Contact: Vin Maratty, 22 Lothian Socialist Discussion @Autonomous Greystoke Avenue, Sunderland, Tyne and Centre Edinburgh, ACE, 17 West Montgomery Wear, SR2 9DS, tel: 01915 250 002. Email: Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA. Meets 4th Punishing the Poorest 17 [email protected]. Wednesday of each month 7.30-9.00pm. Tel: F.Anderson 07724 082753. NORTHWEST REGULARS Lancaster branch . Meets fortnightly 8.30pm. WALES P. Shannon, 10 Green Street, Lancaster Swansea branch . Meets 2nd Mon, 7.30pm, Pathfi nders 4 LA1 1DZ. Tel: 01524 382380 Email: spgb. Unitarian Church, High Street. Corres: [email protected] Geoffrey Williams, 19 Baptist Well Street, Halo Halo! 6 Manchester branch . Paul Bennett, 6 Burleigh Waun Wen, Swansea SA1 6FB. Cooking the Books 7 Mews, Hardy Lane, M21 7LB. Tel: 01792 643624 Tel: 0161 860 7189 Cardiff and District . Corres: Richard Material World 8 Bolton . Tel: H. McLaughlin. 01204 844589 Botterill, 21 Pen-Y-Bryn Rd, Gabalfa, Cardiff, Cumbria . Brendan Cummings, 19 Queen St, CF14 3LG. Tel: 02920-615826 Email: Greasy Pole 9 Millom, Cumbria LA18 4BG [email protected] Rochdale . Tel: R. Chadwick. 01706 522365 Llandudno Cooking the Books 18 Southeast Manchester . Enquiries: Blanche Contact: Gareth Whitley - Email: gwhitley@ Mixed Media 19 Preston, 68 Fountains Road, M32 9PH hotmail.co.uk Reviews 20 YORKSHIRE Yorkshire Regional Branch: Edward Craggs, INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS Proper Gander 21 Sutton Farm, Aldborough, Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, YO51 9ER. Tel:01423 332781 Latin America . J.M. Morel, Calle 7 edif 45 Meetings 22 apto 102, Multis nuevo La loteria, SOUTH /SOUTHEAST /SOUTHWEST La Vega, Rep. Dominicana. 50 Years Ago 23 Kent and Sussex Regional branch. Meets AFRICA second Sunday every month at 2.00pm at The Kenya . Patrick Ndege, PO Box 78105, Nairobi. Action Replay 23 Muggleton Inn, High Street, Maidstone ME14 Swaziland . Mandla Ntshakala, PO Box 981, Voice from the Back 24 1HJ. Manzini. Email: [email protected] Zambia. Kephas Mulenga, PO Box 280168, Free Lunch 24 Tel: 07973 142701. Kitwe. South West Regional branch. Meets 2nd ASIA Saturday of each month in the Railway Japan . Michael. Email: japan.wsm@gmail. All original material is available under the Creative Tavern, Salisbury, 2.00pm (check before com Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 UK: England & attending). Shane Roberts, 86 High Street, AUSTRALIA Wales (CC BY-ND 2.0 UK) licence. Bristol BS5 6DN. Tel: 0117 9511199 Trevor Clarke, [email protected] Canterbury . Rob Cox, 4 Stanhope Road, Deal, EUROPE The Socialist Party Kent, CT14 6AB Denmark . Graham Taylor, Kjaerslund 9, fl oor 52 Clapham High Street, Luton . Nick White, 59 Heywood Drive, LU2 2 (middle), DK-8260 Viby J 7LP Germany . Norbert. London SW4 7UN Redruth . Harry Sowden, 5 Clarence Villas, E-mail: [email protected] Tel : 0207 622 3811 Redruth, Cornwall, TR15 1PB. Norway . Robert Stafford. Email: [email protected] Tel: 01209 219293 Email: [email protected] Website : www.worldsocialism.org/spgb Italy. Gian Maria Freddi, Via Felice Casorati Blog: http://socialismoryourmoneyback. EAST ANGLIA n. 6A, 37131 Verona East Anglian Regional branch. Meets on the Spain . Alberto Gordillo, Avenida del Parque blogspot.com/ second Saturday on alternate months (see 2/2/3 Puerta A, 13200 Manzanares. SUBSCRIPTION ORDERS meetings page for details). Pat Deutz, 11 The Links, Billericay, CM12 should be sent to the address above. 0EX. [email protected] COMPANION PARTIES OVERSEAS RATES: One year subscription (normal rate) David Porter, Eastholme, Bush Drive, Eccles- £15. One year subscription (low/unwaged) £10. on-Sea, NR12 0SF. Socialist Party of Canada/Parti Socialiste Europe rate £20 (Air mail). Rest of world £25 Tel: 01692 582533. du Canada . Box 4280, Victoria B.C. V8X 3X8 (Air mail). Voluntary supporters subscription Richard Headicar, 42 Woodcote, Firs Rd, Canada. £20 or more. Cheques payable to ‘The Socialist Hethersett, NR9 3JD. Tel: 01603 814343. Email:[email protected] Party of Great Britain’. Cambridge . Andrew Westley, 10 Marksby World Socialist Party (India) 257 Baghajatin Close, Duxford, Cambridge CB2 4RS. ‘E’ Block (East), Kolkata - 700086, Tel: 033- The next meeting of the Executive Committee Tel: 07890343044 2425-0208, Email: [email protected] will be on Saturday 1 August at the address World Socialist Party (New Zealand) P.O. above. Correspondence should be sent to IRELAND Box 1929, Auckland, NI, New Zealand. the General Secretary. All articles, letters Cork : Kevin Cronin, 5 Curragh Woods, World Socialist Party of the United States and notices should be sent to the Editorial Frankfi eld, Cork. Tel: 021 4896427. Email: P.O. Box 440247, Boston, MA 02144 USA. Committee. [email protected] Email: [email protected] 2 Socialist Standard July 2015 Introducing The Socialist Party The Socialist Party is like no other political to make new socialists. We publish ideas across, the more experiences we party in Britain. It is made up of people who pamphlets and books, as well as CDs, will be able to draw on and greater will be have joined together because we want to DVDs and various other informative the new ideas for building the movement get rid of the profi t system and establish material. We also give talks and take part which you will be able to bring us. real socialism. Our aim is to persuade in debates; attend rallies, meetings and The Socialist Party is an organisation of others to become socialist and act for demos; run educational conferences; equals. There is no leader and there are themselves, organising democratically host internet discussion forums, make no followers. So, if you are going to join and without leaders, to bring about the fi lms presenting our ideas, and contest we want you to be sure that you agree kind of society that we are advocating elections when practical. Socialist fully with what we stand for and that we in this journal. We are solely concerned literature is available in Arabic, Bengali, are satisfi ed that you understand the case with building a movement of socialists for Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, for socialism. socialism. We are not a reformist party Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and If you would like more details about with a programme of policies to patch up Turkish as well as English. The Socialist Party, complete and capitalism. The more of you who join The Socialist return the form on page 23. We use every possible opportunity Party the more we will be able to get our socialist standard JULY 2015 Editorial Labour’s strange ‘revolution’ LABOUR’S ELECTORAL victory, 70 years ago this month, ineffi cient – particularly in cost terms. Loopholes existed was a strange sort of revolution. through which workers could gain more than they ‘needed’. Since 1940, the Labour Party had been in power as part And the welfare state also brought them benefi ts. The war of the wartime coalition. 1945 saw them merely increase had revealed serious fl aws in the health of the ‘nation’. The their share of the political cake. Clement Attlee, for instance, British Tommy, with his rotten teeth and pigeon chest, became previously Deputy Prime Minister under Churchill, moved up a an object of derision. This was a bad for fi ghting - and for step. Similarly, Herbert Morrison, who had run the home front working when peace returned. Something had to be done. In during the war, continued to run the home front during the 1943, arch-capitalist Sir Samuel Courtauld freely admitted that peace. Morrison, Home Security during the war, stepped into social security ‘will ultimately lead to higher effi ciency among Attlee’s shoes as Deputy Prime Minister. them and a lowering of production costs’. Healthy workers Amongst rank and fi le Labour MPs elected in 1945, there make healthy profi ts. were dozens of majors and lieutenants - the offi cer class – The welfare state, the promise of a ‘better world’ tomorrow and not a single private. The very ordinary elite remained was also a carrot, an incentive to increase production – and quite fi rmly in control of the political establishment. killing – during the war. The Beveridge Report honestly Labour’s crowning glory of ‘45 is seen as the creation of declared ‘each individual citizen is more likely to concentrate the so-called welfare state, in particular the National Health upon his war effort if he feels that his Government will be Service.