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1 Socialist Standard October 2018 Socialist Standard October 2018 1 socialist standard Editorial Contents October 2018 Down with leaders One thing that all capitalist political on Lenin’s theory of the vanguard appropriate it. To do this, the new ruling organisations, whatever their political party, in which a body of professional class needed a state machine that would Features Regulars complexion, have in common is that they revolutionaries will lead the working rule over the exploited wealth producing 5 Conspiracy Theories 5 4 Pathfinders are organised around the leadership class to socialism. Political power rests class and keep them in order. Thus a All Smoke & Mirrors? principle. At the apex is a leader or a with the Central Committee who control political ideology promoting leadership 6 Cooking the Books 1 leadership body, who will determine and the decision making process within the emerged. Under capitalism, leaders are 10 Leon’s Acolytes 7 Wood for the Trees control the direction of the organisation. organisation. selected either from the capitalist class The Left’s Obsession with Trotsky Under capitalist democracies, the political Not only in politics, but in other spheres or from members of the working class 9 Material World leader is usually elected by a ballot of of of life we have leaders. Shareholders elect who are willing to manage the economic 13 The Hard Left 18 Cooking the Books 2 its parliamentary representatives and/ the company’s CEO and board of directors system, on their behalf, so that the A Soft Ideological Underbelly or its party members (In the case of the who make the investment decisions and workers continue to produce profits. 19 Proper Gander Labour Party, members of affiliated unions have control over the workforce. Trade Under socialism, where private/state 16 Indian Inundation can also vote). Although party members unions also have leaders. At school, we are property is abolished and the means of The Tragedy of the Floods in Kerala 20 Reviews have some involvement in the annual taught about the ‘great’ leaders of ‘our’ living are held in common, class divisions 22 50 Years Ago Party Conferences, the party programmes country. So we are encouraged to believe will disappear, there will be no need 18 Socialism that are presented at election time are that the most able and ‘talented’ of the for political leaders and people will be Restating what you should know 23 Meetings ultimately determined by the party human race are destined to be leaders, able to participate freely in society. As leadership. Once the party is elected to while the ‘untalented’ rest of us have to the organisation of the Socialist Party 24 Rear View power, the party leader becomes the accept our place as followers. reflects the socialist society for which it 24 Free Lunch national leader. Aside from voting at each Yet history shows that this has not is striving, there is no place for leaders 13 General Election and at the occasional always been the case. In the earliest and is, therefore, under the control of its referendum, the working class has no formations of human society, which Marx membership. say in the running of the government. In described as ‘primitive communism’, there political dictatorships, the leader is usually was no private property, no state no appointed by a governing clique or is class divisions and people were able to selected on the basis of nepotism, as is participate without the need of leaders. the case with North Korea. However, when society developed to The leadership principle is not confined the point where a surplus could be to the mainstream parties, the so-called produced over and above its basic needs, revolutionary left base their politics a minority class emerged that was able to 10 16 Introducing the Socialist Party The Socialist Party advocates a society why actions to prevent the depredation of unattractive -- meaning: state ownership where production is freed from the the natural world can have limited effect and control. As the Socialist Standard artificial constraints of profit and and run counter to the nature of capitalism pointed out before both courses were organised for the benefit of all on the itself. followed, the results would more properly basis of material abundance. It does not Gradualist reformers like the Labour be called state capitalism. have policies to ameliorate aspects of the Party believed that capitalism could be The Socialist Party and the World existing social system. It is opposed to all Socialist Movement affirm that capitalism war. is incapable of meaningful change in The Socialist Standard is the combative the interests of the majority; that the monthly journal of the Socialist Party, basis of exploitation is the wages/money published without interruption since system. The Socialist Standard is proud 1904. In the 1930s the Socialist Standard to have kept alive the original idea of explained why capitalism would not what socialism is -- a classless, stateless, collapse of its own accord, in response to wageless, moneyless society or, defined widespread claims to the contrary, and positively, a democracy in which free and continues to hold this view in face of the equal men and women co-operate to notion’s recent popularity. Beveridge’s produce the things they need to live and welfare measures of the 1940s were transformed through a series of social enjoy life, to which they have free access viewed as a reorganisation of poverty and measures, but have merely become in accordance with the principle ‘from a necessary ‘expense’ of production, and routine managers of the system. The each according to their abilities, to each Keynesian policies designed to overcome Bolsheviks had to be content with according to their needs’ slumps an illusion. Today, the journal developing Russian capitalism under a All original material is available under the Creative exposes as false the view that banks one-party dictatorship. Both failures have Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 UK: England & Wales create money out of thin air, and explains given socialism a quite different -- and (CC BY-ND 2.0 UK) licence. 2 Socialist Standard October 2018 Socialist Standard October 2018 3 onspiracy-theory, or conspiracism, has it that much of the world today is to be Cunderstood in terms of ‘conspiracy’ be it by scientists, extra-terrestrials, masons, or whoever. Currently gaining credence among Whale Flukes many is the idea that all accepted science WHEN people ask questions that begin heavily subsidised by their governments. To answer the question ‘Would there is a conspiracy, for relativity theory and ‘What would socialism do about…?’ we Though populations have been gulled be whaling in socialism?’ you only have quantum physics are specialised subjects. have to be careful how to answer because into supporting whaling as a mark of to ask yourself if you would be prepared a) it would be presumptuous of us to make nationalist pride, hardly any of them eat to go out on a factory ship and kill whales the majority of us are not astrophysicists, tomorrow’s decisions today on behalf of whale meat. In Iceland, whale watching with grenade harpoons for the sake of orEinstein other typesis difficult of scientist, to understand but that and is no everyone, b) prevailing circumstances and is a far more lucrative industry and something that nobody wants to eat in the reason to dismiss these theories. technology may change unpredictably and almost the only people who eat the first place. c), as a Party wag once put it, socialists meat are tourists who think of it as a Many in society seek solace in don’t have crystal balls. cultural box to tick (‘Icelanders Don’t Like pseudoscience, and therefore in conspiracism, whereby human But you don’t need technical Whale Meat—So Why the Hunts?’news. The Green And they can feel in control over what they cannot understand. knowledge, or crystal balls, to realise nationalgeographic.com, 27 January Pleasant Sahara Conspiracism absolves you from having to undertake progress. what socialism would most likely do in 2016). The other story is more encouraging, painstaking research where you are not willing to trust Marxscientific knew many cases. Sometimes common sense is In Norway fewer than 5 percent eat with the suggestion by researchers that this when he enough. But capitalism is far too perverse whale steak (Wikipedia). The rest is sold planting up to 9m square kilometres of Conspiracism attracts people from an entire spectrum, eager wrote welcoming solar panels and wind turbines across the to be so amenable, as two recent news for dog food or shipped to Japan. Even in tothose feel who that actuallythey belong have to expertise something: in a right difficult or left subject. in their and applauding Sahara desert would have the effect of items illustrate. Japan there is hardly any taste for it, and leanings, dependent on what they were before becoming the publication of greening it (‘Large-scale wind and solar The first item is the story that Japan the market is on the point of collapse. conspiracist. The phenomenon appears to attract ‘truthers’ Darwin’s The Origin is trying to get its supporters on the The reason in all cases is the same: whale power ‘could green the Sahara’’, BBC Online, 7 September). It turns out that – those who know the ‘truth’ despite the facts. Some are of Species, recognising International Whaling Commission (mostly meat just doesn’t taste very good. Despite avowedly Christian, others not. Some dally with other science as the necessary ally of socialism. Above all, the small countries with juicy Japanese aid its claims to centuries of tradition, Japan both solar and wind collection systems programmes) to vote to lift the long- only started large-scale whaling after have the by-product of increasing local conspiracism.
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