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Socialist Standard October 2009 1

socialist standard
OCTOBER 2009

website: www.worldsocialism.org

13 18

contents 17
FEATURES REGULARS

3 Editorial
10 ‘Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World’. Capitalism and health care
An analysis of the US report designed to guide strategic thinking and
inspire political action on behalf of the U.S. ruling class and its allies. 4 Pathfinders
Google ga-ga?
5 Letters
13 The rise and fall of the ILP
With proposals to set up a united leftwing party to challenge Labour,
we look at a previous attempt at this. 6 Material World
Wealth accumulation
15 The disease that is capitalism 7 Cartoon
What’s better - treating the symptoms or dealing with the cause? Ire of the Irate Itinerant
8 Pieces Together
16 Big Brother and the Robots
A discussion of a Socialist Party meeting in London entitled ‘Here 8 Contact Details
Come the Robots’
9 Cooking the Books 1
It isn’t over till it’s over
17 New roots of conflict
The conflicts over oil may give way to another source of military dispute
– lanthanide metals. 9 Tiny Tips

19 Cooking the Books 2


18 The SLP of America: a premature obituary? Funny money
By some accounts, the Socialist Labor Party of America has ceased to
function. 20 Reviews
The Mind of the Market; Made to
Break; Reports & Reflections...
22 Meetings

22 50 Years Ago
The use of the vote
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2 Socialist Standard October 2009


Introducing Editorial
The Socialist Party Capitalism and health care
The Socialist Party is like no other
political party in Britain. It is made up ON BOTH sides of the Atlantic, the last whole, the working class who constitute
of people who have joined together few months have seen various suppos- some 90 percent of the population.
because we want to get rid of the profit edly alternative models for health care The reason the US administration is
system and establish real socialism. Our inside capitalism being explored. Barack looking again at how their system is – or
aim is to persuade others to become Obama’s review of US health care pro- isn’t – working, has little to do with how
socialist and act for themselves, vision within his first year in office has ethical or plain nice it wants its society
organising democratically and without met a predictably heated response from to be. Instead it is driven by a need to
leaders, to bring about the kind of the paid lobbyists and cheerleaders of make economies and find the most effi-
society that we are advocating in this the health insurance industry, as well as cient way to maintain the health of the
journal. We are solely concerned with other sectors of the US capitalist class US workforce. After all, despite the egali-
building a movement of socialists for with something to lose from any change tarian claims surrounding it, the intro-
socialism. We are not a reformist party to the status quo. duction of the NHS to the UK had a solid
with a programme of policies to patch The costs of individual medical insur- capitalist ‘business case’ behind it and
up capitalism. ance being prohibitive, the poor of this was supported by all main parties. (The
We use every possible opportunity so-called first world nation (46 million of cost to the US state per head of popula-
to make new socialists. We publish
them) are left with Third World levels of tion is now approximately twice that in
pamphlets and books, as well as CDs,
care and medical support, and daily “life the UK).
DVDs and various other informative
material. We also give talks and take part
and debt” decisions. The NHS – and the other examples
in debates; attend rallies, meetings and Whilst there are some differences quoted of ‘socialised’ medicine (e.g. Scan-
demos; run educational conferences; between the US and UK healthcare sys- dinavian countries) – are not socialism,
host internet discussion forums, make tem, we shouldn’t over-exaggerate them. which we would argue means a money-
films presenting our ideas, and contest Heated though the US v NHS debate may less and wageless economy as a whole.
elections when practical. Socialist be, it is essentially a phoney war. From a However at an individual and emotional
literature is available in Arabic, Bengali, world socialist perspective, these are just level (rather than at a political level), it
Dutch, Esperanto, French, German, alternative capitalist models for rationing would be churlish of world socialists to
Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and healthcare for the working class dismiss out of hand the strong empathy
Turkish as well as English. The US system places a cash regis- and support for the NHS that most work-
The more of you who join the Socialist ter and swipe card console at the foot of ers in Britain have. It is after all support
Party the more we will be able to get your hospital bed. In terms of the imme- for free access, for the idea that health-
our ideas across, the more experiences diacy and impact on the patient, the NHS care be freely available to all regardless
we will be able to draw on and greater and similar systems in Europe certainly of wealth.
will be the new ideas for building the seem a little more ‘civilised’. But there At one level, world socialists entirely
movement which you will be able to
is of course still a reckoning somewhere empathise with this sentiment. But not
bring us.
down the line. The ‘socialised’ systems to the extent of getting caught up in ex-
The Socialist Party is an organisation
just remove that decision from the imme- pressing political support for one type
of equals. There is no leader and there
are no followers. So, if you are going diacy of the ward. Instead the decision is of capitalist healthcare system over an-
to join we want you to be sure that you made at one remove: by an NHS Trust or other: only a social system based on pro-
agree fully with what we stand for and the government that allocates its funds. duction for use rather than profit for the
that we are satisfied that you understand The decision isn’t made for you as an in- few, can truly realise this powerful and
the case for socialism. dividual patient, but for your class as a fundamentally egalitarian desire.

Socialist Standard October 2009 3


The information revolution which began with printing
Is technology making us and has lately accelerated geometrically with the internet
has certainly involved a knowledge revolution but the two
stupid? are not the same and the one does not necessarily entail
the other. From a world subdued in ignorance modern
DO YOU ever wonder whether the smarter technology workers now face a perpetual storm of information from
becomes, the dumber and lazier we become? which it is perhaps becoming harder, not easier, to
At one level, of course, this can’t be true. Literacy extract meaningful knowledge.
rates in almost all countries are in the high nineties, and It is not only the speed and intensity of this ‘data
the information revolution can scarcely be said to have rain’ which swamps the mind. It is the fact that it is
rendered people more ignorant than they were hundreds being broken down into smaller and smaller packets,
of years ago. Advanced capitalism needs workers skilled knowledge being deconstructed,
in the ‘knowledge economy’, digitised, quantised and miniaturised
and can scarcely afford for its for faster transmission. And to cope
school indoctrination centres with this onslaught, the mind becomes
to turn out workers who aren’t less reflective and more selective,
up to the job. picking and choosing what it will
But still, when you try to process according to its preset value
have a conversation in a pub judgments, making it less rather than
with a group of people who are more likely that new ideas will be
simultaneously writing phone adopted. Time too is at a premium,
texts, checking their email, and technology is taking knowledge
Facebook, Twitter accounts away from the library and the
and RSS feeds, and looking desktop towards the e-reader and the
over your shoulder at the smartphone, from email to Twitter,
cricket scores on the giant TV from debate to mere chat.
screen, while humming along Some futurists, like Ray Kursweil,
to the rock tune on the in- have been predicting the advent of
house speakers, you might be the Singularity, a technological point
forgiven for thinking that less beyond which it is not possible to
is sometimes more. It seems make any predictions at all. The
as if people don’t discuss, nature of the Singularity is popularly
think, concentrate, criticise, supposed to be the development or
evaluate. All they’re doing is evolution of true machine intelligence,
time-slicing in a perpetual but could it be that instead of machine
multi-tasking environment. intelligence rising to meet us, we
What you are dealing with simply sink until we pass it on the way
is, arguably, a case of social down?
attention deficit hyperactive Some say it’s Google making us ga-
disorder. An entire society in ga, others that it’s screen-burn to the
need of ritalin. brain. But where most such concerns
The world is drowning are merely the same old bourgeois
in an ocean of data, but snootiness against youth or the lower
data is not information and orders, socialists have got legitimate
information is not knowledge. reason to worry, because this could
Data consists of bytes or all play into the hands of capitalism.
small packets, which must The ruling class loves to infantilise
be compiled into some kind us, making us think we’re too dumb
of order so as to provide and childlike to take responsibility
meaningful information. Thus for ourselves without their ‘guiding’
the words ‘lion’, ‘fish’ and authority. It would be scary to think
‘eats’ are data, while ‘lion that this might come to be true.
eats fish’ or ‘fish eats lion’ or Our best hope is for a political
‘lionfish eats’ are alternative Singularity, something no techie is
forms of information creatable predicting. The Zeitgeist Movement
from the same data. appears to be making huge strides in
There is a similar difference popularising non-market production
between ‘information’ and for use, and another group is calling
‘knowledge’. For knowledge to exist, small pieces of for a World Strike against money in 2012. These might
information must be collected and processed into some grow or they might fizzle out, like the anti-capitalist
meaningful agglomeration, like molecules building into movement. But for such a post-capitalist society to
more complex organic systems. Knowledge is thus a succeed it cannot be imposed from above or gifted to the
construct which it takes time, patience, communication world by one or two visionaries. Facebook, Twitter and
and experience to build. the blogosphere are all useful means of communicating
In the Dark Ages, knowledge was a treasure locked ideas, but they’re not oriented towards what is also
up behind monastic walls. In the Middle Ages, it was necessary: focussed reflection and critical debate. It’s not
still the preserve of princes. With the dissolution of that people are incapable of these abilities, but if they
the monasteries in Britain knowledge began to be are not accustomed to them they may try to avoid them.
secularised, and the invention of printing revolutionised The danger is the spread of soundbite socialism at the
its spread. expense of depth.

4 Socialist Standard October 2009


Letters
All middle class now? stuff on technology we introduced poverty and starvation takes 10 years
during the dispute. Or are you instead of 1000...but this does not
Dear Editors clacking over an old Underwood happen unless you, the vast majority
It must be difficult not to write about typewriter and cursing every time the of you, understand, desire and vote
stereotypes, but I was never against keys stick? Just think, you could’ve for socialism, a system of society
unions - just the way they operated achieved that if the unions had won based upon common ownership
in a modern democracy. I just felt in 1982. Welcome to the world of the of the means and instruments for
instead of calling a strike at every middle class. production and distribution by and in
opportunity to flex their muscles the interests of society as a whole.
– which is the headbanger approach Reply: So for those reformists who may
– the funds they had should’ve We too are critical of the knights be exposed to neo-McCarthyism
been used for re-training redundant of the round table at the TUC’s and murdering church violation and
workers, helping other workers set Congress House but from a working- prejudice with Earth’s trifling little
up cooperatives when companies had class point of view. Unions should be solutions of state-run health care,
failed, create savings for workers and run by their members and officials have no fear. These have nothing
their families injured in accidents, should not have big salaries, big to do with socialism or (primitive)
etc; and so on. What really pissed me houses and big cars as many do. We communism.
off was that the union bosses during say “working class” deliberately as, The failed feudalistic dictatorships
our dispute - and I since discovered for us, this is composed of anyone of Russia and China had a false
in nearly all other disputes - went on obliged to get a living by going out dream of installation by undemocratic
paying themselves handsome salaries and trying to sell their mental and elitism; fascism had a racist,
and driving their big modern ‘I’m not physical energies to some employer. nationalist and proud illusion
a union official, I’m an executive’ cars This of course applies to most of the – state capitalism by another name;
whilst they waltzed around between so-called “middle class”, as many of the national post office is only an
meetings as their members froze on them are discovering the hard way as example of state capitalism – not
the picket line. they lose their jobs or see their final common ownership; humans would
It’s all bullshit created on the back salary pension scheme closing. And like to pretend they are inclusive
of the working class’ aspirations. it is capitalism that forces workers and democratic and that the tree of
Truth is we are a middle class society to resist new technologies as a way knowledge and life have all their fruit
now, as we were becoming during my of trying to protect their livelihoods. intact...the truth is otherwise.
dispute, but it paid the power brokers If we had socialism nobody would be Samantha Morris (by email)
at the top of the Labour movement put in this position. – Editors.
and the trades unions to keep the old
class war going so that they could
retain their power bases and their Socialism needed
trappings of success.
So I object to being told I was Dear Editors
an employer who wanted to run Re: Starvation in Africa; poverty
my business without trade union of many kinds. So very much and
interference. In our case, when the sincerely appreciate the NY Times
trade union tries to control who you September 8, 2009 front-page photo
can and can’t employ, that’s the day of the starving and dehydrated
that people stop running businesses Kenyans. In a world wherein over
and get out - which would be great for 40,000 humans starve to death in
a wealth creating nation, I think not. disease and degradation each day,
The freedom you have to write these continuous international crises
your periodical without fear of should be making front page news
imprisonment, censorship and even every day.
death, is something hard fought for However in a world where state
by a capitalist society, or by writers in capitalist dictatorships and state
a suppressed state who fight for the ownership and control, proxies
freedom of a democratic state. for the owning and ruling class,
There are times journalists is confused with socialism, which
shouldn’t forget that. A free press is has yet to exist on Earth, real
the only watchdog of those who would solutions to the problems of war and
govern us in both a democratic and starvation are endlessly mired in
an authoritarian state. needlessly convoluted problems of
The trouble with socialism is that opposing interests that simply mean
it has its head buried in the satanic a dimension of pseudo-intellectually
mills of a hundred years ago. It needs evil data structure remains necessary
enlightening. It needs a new vision, to describe even mere reformist Corrections
not a descent into the madness of a heuristics. In the article on “Japan : the road to Pearl
suppressed anarchy that never had Socialism, which can only exist Harbour” in last month’s issue we referred to
a chance of catering to a world of the whole world over when the the “Sino-Soviet war of 1894-5”. It should of
technology and freedom of the mass majority of Earth’s population first course have been the “Sino-Japanese war
understand classism and capitalism, of 1894-5”.
as well as the individual. There are no In Greasy Pole in the August issue we
new visions, yet the world is crying and comprehend and desire socialism
mispelled the name of Blackburn Rovers’
out for them. and vote it peacefully, legally and
ground: it should have been spelt “Ewood
Eddy Shah democratically into existence, means Park”.
PS. I presume your writing your the solution to ending all wars,

Socialist Standard October 2009 5


Why they keep piling up manure:
the psychology of wealth accumulation

Money is like manure. If you spread it glorious in itself: in addition, one should “do good”. As a
result, some wealthy individuals wish also to be “great
around, it does a lot of good, but if you pile it humanitarians and philanthropists”.
up in one place, it stinks like hell. There is actually a special business that makes
money by selling “philanthropic” fame. For a fixed sum
I CAN’T trace the original author, but it seems to be a you can have a concert hall, museum, hospital, college
popular motto among rich “philanthropists”. It has been or whatever named after you (or a relative of yours).
attributed, in slightly variant wordings, to steel magnate For example, Brown University named its Institute of
Andrew Carnegie, oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, New York International Studies, where I used to work, in honour of
“socialite” Brooke Astor, Clint W. Murchison (chairman of Tom Watson of IBM in exchange for $25 million.
Tecon Corporation) and Kenneth Langone (founder of The The publicity given to large “philanthropic” donations
Home Depot). suggests that in certain circles kudos may now depend
Two questions spring to mind. on how much money you give as well as how much
First, if these people so hate the smell of manure, why you have. It is like the potlatch among the Kwakiutl
do they keep piling it up? After all, they are free to stop at of western Canada, where the wealthy gain kudos by
any time. making generous gifts.
Second, what do they want all that money for anyway?
Surely a few hundred million should suffice to buy all Guilt feelings?
the luxuries anyone could want? So why chase after the While “philanthropy” is often just a means of
billions? cultivating a favourable public image, some wealthy
people may be sincere in wanting to “do good”. Some
An addiction to extravagance authors even attribute the giving of certain individuals to
One answer is offered by Eric Schoenberg of Columbia guilt feelings about how their fortunes were made.
Business School (on the site of Forbes magazine). Driving Thus, it is claimed that Brooke Astor was ashamed of
your first Rolls Royce is a fantastic experience, he her family’s reputation as New York’s biggest slumlords.
explains, but as you get used to it you no longer enjoy it Carnegie, we are told, felt guilt over the workers killed in
so much. So you have to look for new experiences, which the suppression of the Homestead strike of 1892. Yet he
for some reason are always more and more expensive. also wanted “Carnegie Steel to come out on top” – and
Presumably, an obsession with money spoils the that feeling proved stronger than any sense of guilt.
enjoyment of anything that does not cost a lot of it. The Ashamed or not, Astor gave nothing to the victims of
result is an addiction to extravagance that reinforces the her family’s rack-renting. Instead, she gave $200 million
drive to make more money. to cultural institutions. Similarly, Carnegie endowed the
arts and academia, but gave nothing back to the workers
Kudos who slaved in the heat of his steel mills at poverty line
Besides addiction to extravagance, the most common wages – twelve hours a day, every single day of the year
motive for accumulating wealth appears to be simply the except 4 July
desire to be admired by others. Kudos, however, depends The ruthless capitalist precedes, makes possible
less on absolute wealth than on place in the pecking and is vindicated by the “generous philanthropist”. The
order, as indicated by lists like the Forbes 400. Only capitalist drives the system that causes the misery;
Number One can feel fully confident of his superior status the “philanthropist” then does a little to ameliorate
– and even he must beware of rivals overtaking him. that misery. Strangely enough, the capitalist and the
Astonishing but true: many people honestly think “philanthropist” turn out to be one and the same person.
– indeed, assume – that being rich is something worthy of
pride and admiration. They consider having more money Piling up and spreading out
than anyone else the greatest of all conceivable human Why keep piling up manure just to spread it out
achievements. Never mind where the money came from, again? It seems senseless – even if the manure does not
how it was acquired. To be a “winner” is glorious, to be end up exactly where it was before.
a “loser” shameful and pitiable. They were brought up to Yes, it seems senseless when we focus on outcome.
think so, and can hardly imagine that anyone might be But when we shift our attention to process, it starts to
sincere in thinking otherwise. make more sense.
We might expect there to be an element of subtlety Piling up brings one sort of kudos, then spreading out
or mystery in the driving impulse at the core of a brings another. One sort does not cancel out the other.
dynamic that spawns so much evil. Instead, Both piling up and spreading out
we find something insufferably boring and give the satisfaction of exercising
trivial, the ultimate in banality. power, making decisions that
affect millions of lives – on
The “philanthropists” the sole qualification of the
And yet the worship of possession of wealth.
wealth need not wholly So it all makes
exclude other social perfect sense. From
values. Many a certain point
people feel that of view.
just being rich STEFAN
is not sufficiently

6 Socialist Standard October 2009


Socialist Standard October 2009 7
FOOD DESTROYED

“Christophe Voivenel is a dairy farmer, and the son of dairy farmers, in FOOD NEEDED
one of the finest dairy regions in the world. At some point in the next
few days, he will commit an act of sacrilege. He will rise, as usual, at “Changing weather patterns have
6am to milk his 60 cows and then throw away the warm, white liquid decimated crops in several of the
which is his family’s life’s blood. ‘You have to understand how hard world’s poorest countries this year,
that will be,’ he said. ‘It is like an artist destroying his own painting leaving millions in need of food aid
or a craftsman smashing one of his own creations.’ Mr Voivenel, 43, and humanitarian workers warning
a farmer near Vire in lower Normandy, is about to go on strike. Tens about the dangerous effects of climate
of thousands of dairy farmers in 14 European countries, including change. Farmers in Nepal have been
some in Britain, are preparing to join the first ever pan-European able to produce only half their usual
‘milk strike’: an attempt to push up the farm-gate price of milk, which crop, said an Oxfam International
has almost halved in the last 18 months.” (Independent, 29 August) report released last week. Livestock
are dying of malnutrition in Yemen,
according to the humanitarian news
service IRIN. And the Red Cross
CHARITY
THE FAILURE OF a quarter
is bracing for the effects of heavy
rn of Africa nearly rains across 16 West and Central
of fam ine ha s returned to the Ho h it at Liv e
“The spectre thered to banis African nations. All three are the
ry aft er the wo rld’s pop stars ga of im po ve ris he d result of extended atypical weather
of a centu
re lie f eff or ts in 1985. Millions n thi s
for y starvatio events – drought, rain, or untimely
Aid, raising £150m t of ma lnu trition and possibl
thr ea cri sis for combinations of both – in places
Ethiopians face the country’s worst foo
d
aping up to be the emergency food where subsistence farmers have
winter in what is sh pe op le wh o ne ed
s of the number of nuary to 5.3 millio
n long depended on predictability. In
decades. Estimate s ye ar fro m 4.9 million in Ja re tur n Nepal, more than 3 million people
ad ily thi e getting aid in
aid have risen ste Ju ne . An other 7.5 million ar Sa fet y – about 10 percent of the population
llio n in od uc tiv e
in May and 6.2 mi part of the Nationa
l Pr – will need food aid this year, said
unity projects, as nically insecure,
for work on comm su pp lie s ar e ch ro Oxfam.” (Yahoo News, 2 September)
ople whose food ent, 30 August)
Net Program for pe to 13 .7 million.” (Independ
be ing fed
bringing the total

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8 Socialist Standard October 2009


It isn’t over till it’s over If the worst events can bring out the best in people,
WHEN THE latest figures for business investment
were published at the end of August, pro-capitalist why can’t that impulse be sustained in everyday life?
commentators were shocked: As Solnit notes, “the real question is not why this brief
“From April to June businesses spent £29.9 billion paradise of mutual aid and altruism appears but rather
on investments, from new computers to vehicles, down why it is ordinarily overwhelmed by another world order.”
18.4 per cent on last year – the biggest annual drop since
records began in 1967. Against the first quarter of the http://tinyurl.com/mcp52d
year, investment tumbled 10.4 per cent from £33.3 billion
– the steepest quarterly decline in 24 years” (Times, 28 The United States spent $75 billion over the past
August). year to finance worldwide intelligence operations that
Times journalist Ian King commented: employ 200,000 people, according to an unprecedented
“Normally sober economists, such as Michael Saunders disclosure by the nation’s top intelligence official:
of Citi, reached for the history books as they pointed out
that, in terms of total investment, the annual decline http://tinyurl.com/ml2t9s
this year is likely to be about 18 per cent – the biggest
fall, outside wartime, for more than a century. Judging At the Charter School for Excellence, a school
from these numbers, businesses are simply not spending in South Florida inspired by Gothard’s draconian
enough to haul the UK out of recession”. principles that receives $800,000 in state funds
Even though it only amounts to between 10 and 14 each year, children are indoctrinated into a culture
percent of GDP business investment – essentially what of absolute submission to authority almost as soon
businesses spend, except on wages and land, on renewing as they learn to speak. A song that the school’s first-
production – is what drives the capitalist economy. It is an graders are required to recite goes as follows:
increase in this, resulting from the reinvestment of profits Obedience is listening attentively,
not just in maintaining but in expanding production, that Obedience will take instructions joyfully,
results in an increase in GDP. Obedience heeds wishes of authorities,
Businesses investment falls either because profits are Obedience will follow orders instantly.
down (so businesses don’t have the money to spend) or For when I am busy at my work or play,
because they are not prepared to reinvest all of them as And someone calls my name, I’ll answer right away!
they don’t see themselves making a profit from doing so. I’ll be ready with a smile to go the extra mile
Both these factors will have contributed to the current fall. As soon as I can say “Yes, sir!” “Yes ma am!”
Marx analysed capitalism as a system of capital Hup, two, three!
accumulation where the amount of capital invested
increased over time through profits made out of past http://tinyurl.com/pqnolw
production being invested as new capital. However, this
was not a smooth process but one that proceeded in fits New research indicates that 80% of Afghanistan now
and starts due to fluctuations in business investment. has a permanent Taliban presence and that 97%
GDP does not measure capital accumulation directly, of the country has “substantial Taliban activity.”
but it is the source of income from which new capital is
accumulated. In any country where there is no longer any http://tinyurl.com/m757ex
subsistence farming, GDP can only go up if there has been
some capital accumulation. If GDP falls this is a sign that Are you totally reprehensible and feeling lonely? Or
capital accumulation has faltered. maybe you’re just a struggling business looking for some
The official definition of a recession is a fall in GDP instant online companionship? The firm Usocial has the
for two consecutive quarters. The initial fall will be the answer for you -- buy Facebook friends and fans:
result of a fall in business investment but, as business
investment is only about 10 percent of GDP, a relatively http://tinyurl.com/mvmwdf
big drop in this will be reflected only as a small fall in
GDP. Thus a fall of 10 percent in business investment “But why should we hear about body bags, and
will reflect itself as a fall of only 1 percent of GDP. (In fact deaths, and how many, what day it’s gonna happen,
it will be larger as businesses will also be reducing their and how many this or what do you suppose? Or,
outlay on wages, another component of GDP). I mean, it’s, it’s not relevant. So, why should I
When quarterly GDP increases again (as it will) waste my beautiful mind on something like that?”
politicians and the media will proclaim the end of the : Barbara Bush on ABC - Good Morning America,
recession. But this will only mean that the bottom has March 18, 2003....Six years later.... The Obama
been reached, not that it is over. It won’t really be over administration’s freak out... over the .... circulation of
until business investment and GDP reach the levels they a photograph of a dying US soldier in Afghanistan..
were at before the recession began. As GDP has fallen
5.7 percent since the recession began this will be many http://tinyurl.com/qthse5
quarters later.
At the moment the big argument amongst economists A millionaire in northern China paid four million yuan
and business analysts is what shape the whole episode (600,000 dollars) for a dog and ordered 30 luxury cars to
will turn out to have. The optimists are hoping that it will come to the airport to greet her and the animal:
be V-shaped (i.e. a fairly rapid return to pre-recession
levels). Others see it as being more like a tick (i.e. a slower http://tinyurl.com/r2vr7p
recovery). The pessimists see it like a W (i.e. a double dip,
a initial small recovery followed by second fall).

Socialist Standard October 2009 9


‘Global Trends 2025:
A Transformed World’
The United States ‘intelligence community’ has recently produced a report giving
a strategic overview of current geopolitical and economic trends, and mapping out
potential scenarios by the year 2025. The U.S. is militarily and economically pre-eminent
in the world, and the aim of the report is to guide strategic thinking and inspire political
action on behalf of the U.S. ruling class and its allies.

TO MAKE it less incestuous, certain academics, Nation States


consulting firms and think-tanks were invited to The global financial crisis is seen as accelerating
participate. These include the Atlantic Council of the processes already underway and the report calls for
United States, the Wilson Center, RAND Corporation, “long-term efforts to establish a new international
the Brookings Institution, American Enterprise Institute, system.” (p.11) As the Cold War era gave way to a
Texas A&M University, the Council on Foreign Relations unipolar order of American hegemony, in which the U.S.
and Chatham House in London. became the self-appointed policeman of the world, this
The report is declassified and available to read online too may have to give way and be replaced by a multipolar
(http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_2025_project.html), which international system, with strong regional blocks centred
means it is considered safe for public consumption. The in North America, Europe and Asia. China and India, in
specific plans for action resulting from it will no doubt particular, are expected to have further economic growth
be on a strictly ‘need to know’ basis. There is enough and greater regional and world influence. However,
material to fill several issues of this magazine, so we will this is also expected to cause (or exacerbate) certain
look at one broad theme: increasing authoritarianism problems. Concerning oil and gas resources, and also
and its implications for democracy. food and water (partly due to climate change), “demand
The Chairman’s preamble notes that the study is projected to outstrip easily available supplies over
seeks to “identify opportunities for policy intervention the next decade or so.” (p.viii) It is predicted that nation
… (which) … can decrease the likelihood and severity states will therefore be taking greater protectionist
of negative developments and increase the likelihood of measures up to and including war.
positive ones.” So, what do they consider to be ‘negative’ Capitalism is based on ownership and control by
and ‘positive’? The plans do not prioritise, for example, the minority capitalist class, ruthless exploitation of the
alleviating world hunger, preventing war or cutting majority for profit, and thus competition. In this system,
the emissions that cause global warming (even though the nation state is a mechanism used by capitalists to
going over the climatic tipping point is recognised as a protect – and extend – their dominion as owners and
possibility). No. The ruling class concern is how they can rulers, and this has always led to international strife.
continue to protect their interests as these disasters that As resources dwindle, due to pollution, over exploitation
their system is causing unfold. Their predictions are to and climate change - or easily accessible supplies (those
some extent their intentions, and we can stand warned that are profitable) are used up - competition and thus
about what to expect from them. conflict can be expected to intensify.
The report’s authors “remain optimistic about the

10 Socialist Standard October 2009


long-term prospects for greater democratization, but come to be presented to the populace as such. The
advances are likely to slow and globalization will subject report notes a “questioning among elites over the ability
many recently democratized countries to increasing of democratic governments to take the bold actions
social and economic pressures that could undermine necessary to deal rapidly and effectively with the growing
liberal institutions.” (p.87) This is something the rich number of transnational challenges.” (p.87)
and powerful know all about. U.S. and U.K. governments This “questioning among the elites” has long since
have regularly intervened to disrupt and sometimes gone over into action in the U.S. and elsewhere. The
overthrow democratic institutions and to support enhanced state powers that have been taken following
the installation of military the destruction of the
dictatorships when it has World Trade Center in 2001
been considered good for “It is predicted that nation states marked a speeding-up of
making money/establishing processes already underway.
strategic positions. Such will therefore be taking greater In the U.S. we have seen
foreign policy has frequently protectionist measures up to and the establishment of the
resulted in pro-democracy Department of Homeland
campaigners being beaten including war.” Security, and the passing
or shot in the street or of the USA Patriot Act. The
hunted down, tortured, and latter has legalised greater
imprisoned. U.S. supported surveillance of telephone
coups (and attempted coups) specifically to remove and internet users, searches of premises without
elected governments include: Iran 1953, Guatemala consent or knowledge, access without a court order
1954, Chile 1973, Nicaragua 1981, Grenada 1983, to financial records, library records etc. and indefinite
Panama 1989, Algeria 1992, Haiti 1994-2000, Venezuela detention of immigrants. This has been accompanied by
2002, and Bolivia 2008 (for a full list of interventions see an increasingly restrictive appeals process in the U.S.
http://tiny.cc/mm8kL) Interestingly, in Venezuela and judiciary system.
Bolivia the elected government has been retained due to Other countries have also been expanding their anti-
popular pressure. terrorism legislation and law enforcement powers. Two
Democracy is used by the ruling class as both significant trends are 1) the broad application of terrorist
shield and sword: as a cover (legitimisation) for the legislation and 2) moves that have been taken to exclude
continuing rule of the minority class, and when useful people who have been labelled as terrorists from having
as a justification for aggression against other nation the protections conferred by national and international
states. Whilst it was suddenly imperative for oil-rich Iraq law such as the right to an open trial. Of course, a
to be ‘democratised’ by operation ‘Iraqi Freedom’, non- state of war – and the ‘War on Terror’ will do – anyway
democratic regimes that are ‘friendly’ to U.S. business, allows for martial law to be imposed by democratic
such as Saudi Arabia, are not deemed to be a problem. governments on behalf of the capitalist class whenever
they see fit.
State capitalism The report says that “terrorism is unlikely to
There is speculation in the report that economic disappear by 2025.” (p.iv) Given that terrorism is an
success for China may lead to other countries adopting inevitable consequence of capitalist competition, this is
state capitalist authoritarianism; which means the state no surprise. And the possibility as well as the actuality
taking a more direct and prominent role in economic of terrorism is a useful propaganda tool. It serves to
management. This might be a regional phenomenon, or justify the diminishing of democratic rights – all in the
become more widespread. It is suggested that a trade- name of defending democracy – and to keep domestic
off could occur with domestic populations; the promise populations sufficiently supportive of state terrorism
of more ‘security’ and ‘economic success’ in return for being carried out by certain liberal democracies (often
less democracy. In a complex world of economic crisis, the U.S. with the U.K. helping) in various parts of the
environmental catastrophe and war over resources, world. We are also told that “counterterrorism and
democracy may come to be (or is already being) regarded counterinsurgency missions increasingly will involve
as too unpredictable and uncontrollable – and may urban operations as a result of greater urbanization,”

U.S. supported coups to remove elected governments


include (left) Iran 1953, and (below) Grenada, 1983

Socialist Standard October 2009 11


including domestically (p70). This accords with the disputes. However, concerning wider democracy, the
present trend for an increasing percentage of civilian more quiescent we are and the more an alternative to the
casualties in war. existing system is deemed to be unrealistic or impossible
The capitalist class (or significant sections of it) (the more that capitalist indoctrination is successful),
certainly seems to be preparing to deal with the kind the more we stand to lose that bit of democratic space
of threats to their system that would be posed by the we do possess. Where it exists, the right to vote has been
unrest and disruption that could result from greater won through direct pressure, and conceded by members
societal dysfunction, and also perhaps from the growth of the ruling class who could see the potential of a
of informed types of rebellion that locate the source more inclusive electoral process conferring legitimacy to
of our problems as being the profit system itself. The minority class rule. Subsequently the use of the concept
burgeoning of information sharing through the World of democracy in the ideological struggle has helped to
Wide Web may be something in particular that worries establish it around the world. However, since so much
the capitalist class. For a considerable time in the propaganda (and hypocrisy) has been expended on
West, propagating deception and extolling its virtues, it might prove
distraction has helped to keep the difficult to switch off.
majority of workers compliant, “Surveys show growing Even the better democracies
but we should not doubt that frustration with the current existing in capitalism come nowhere
the more overtly violent and near to fulfilling the potential of
oppressive techniques that have workings of democratic what democracy can actually be.
been used to pursue ruling What we have presently is a system
class interests elsewhere in the government” in which wealth is concentrated
world will also be used to control in the hands of a minority, who
people in the West if it is deemed therefore have most of the power –
necessary by the ruling class, and if they can get away including in the media. ‘Free speech’ in these conditions
with it. simply means that the wealthy – the rulers – still get
And, to an extent, they are already getting away to put their view foremost and have so far convinced
with it, including in the U.K. As well as the measures the electorate to faithfully return capitalist parties to
mentioned above – and in some cases in close parliament.
association with them – trade union rights have been
neutered or removed, local government has become even Democratic theory
more geared to meeting central government targets than Democracy comes from Greek: ‘demos’ and ‘kratia’. It
meeting local needs, restrictions have been placed on essentially means ‘people power’ or ‘rule by the people’,
the right to protest, the incidence of ‘stop and search’ by i.e. it is about the majority being able to make decisions
the police has greatly increased and the length of time and put them into effect. Mainstream political theory
which people can be detained without charge has been and practice tries to separate ‘politics’ from ‘economics’.
extended. Generally in the West ever larger numbers of ‘Political democracy’ is allowed in an approved form, but
people are being criminalized and imprisoned. Hard-won economic democracy is impossible because of economic
civil liberties and human rights have been removed or inequality; the majority are deprived of ownership and
limited by law at an accelerated rate during the last few control of the means of life.
years, and the process isn’t over yet. There are advanced As long as capitalism continues the working class will
plans for ID cards, yet more CCTV cameras, and further continue to be exploited for profit, and the system will
surveillance of telephone and internet use. For the continue to give rise to waste, war, poverty and famine.
capitalist class, enemies are not just rival capitalists, The capitalist class will continue to claim that the aim
capitalist groups or states: the enemy also resides of their actions is to relieve us of these dire conditions,
‘within’ – it is us, the working class majority of wage and whereas in actual fact their profit-making policies only
salary earners. perpetuate them. For all the expected changes indicated
in the report, what we see is business as usual. As
Alienation such, there are tactical decisions to be made, and we
The report notes that “surveys show growing can rest assured that other power blocs have similar
frustration with the current workings of democratic concerns. What the thieves are bothered about is that
government …” (p.87), which is not surprising given other groups of thieves will take their bounty – or at
the current level of democratic deficit. Alienation from least take too great a share – or worse still, that the
existing institutions has profound and diverse effects in workers will recognise them for what they are and unite
society, and changes of popular mood and action may be to emancipate themselves.
unpredictable. This presents a potential threat to those ‘Global Trends 2025’ is the capitalist version of the
in power, but for the moment they have been presented immediate future, but we do not have to be passive
with an opportunity. Lack of democratic involvement recipients of this. It benefits the workers of the world
has itself resulted in growing apathy and lack of political to organise to defend and extend democratic rights; to
awareness, which in turn results in the unwitting widen the democratic space as much as possible. For
acceptance of democratic erosions and a grudging democracy is the way in which we can unite to free
acquiescence to authoritarian methods. Unfortunately, ourselves from the insanity of the profit-system and
in capitalist style democracy, it is democracy that is domination by a minority ruling class. We can replace
often blamed for not fulfilling the promise, instead of the oppression with equality, waste of resources with
capitalist structures that place such severe limits upon production directly for use, and systemic competition
its function. with cooperation for the common good. We can create
Within capitalist limits, democracy exists in a state the world that we want, fashioned by the majority, in the
of flux; the balance altering according to the relative interests of the majority.
strength of the contending classes, and to the different LB/RW
forces in the capitalist class. Amongst themselves the
capitalist class have found use for democracy in solving

12 Socialist Standard October 2009


With proposals to set up a united leftwing the political
party to challenge Labour, we look at a input was very
much from the
previous attempt at this. ILP. In 1906 the
party scored

T
he Independent Labour Party was born on 13 seven MPs with
January 1893 in the Labour Institute, Peckover a further eleven
Street, Bradford. The birth was the culmination being trade
of a series of efforts dating back to the creation of the union endorsed
Scottish Labour Party some five years earlier. From members.
the spring of 1891 local ‘Labour Unions’ were formed, The early
with the similar Manchester and Salford Independent strongholds of
Labour Party following in May 1892. The party and the ILP were
its predecessors were primarily the offspring of James as one might
Keir Hardie, ILP chairman 1893 to 1900 and long time expect in the
(1887-1904) editor of The Labour Leader. Hardie had old industrial
launched his paper (it remained his personal property zones of West
until 1904 when it was taken over directly by the party) Yorkshire
in January 1887 and it would remain the focus of the and South
ILP activity through several renamings (becoming The Lancashire with
New Leader in 1922 and The Socialist Leader in 1946) considerable
until its termination in the late ‘70s. Essentially the support in
party was a radical split from the Liberal Party and Leicester,
its ideology and outlook were determined by this. Norwich and
The early ILP’s conception of socialism was a bit of Merthyr Tydfil. St Hardie contemplating ‘infinitude’
a joke. In 1896 Hardie defined it as “…brotherhood, Scotland, later
fraternity, love thy neighbour as thyself, peace on earth, known as the
goodwill towards men, and glory to God in the highest” heartland of the ILP, was to develop later during and after
(Justice, 6 June 1896). While, in a 1903 letter to Edward the First World War.
Carpenter (quoted in Stanley Pierson’s British Socialism)
John Bruce Glasier, a near-forgotten ILP bigwig, First World War
more obscurely referred to socialism as “a power that If the ILP ever got anything right it was by accident
began with the beginning of the world and permeates and this is seen most obviously in its attitude to the First
infinitude”. I fear he may have been confusing socialism World War. Opposition to the 1914-18 war was clearly
with some form of quantum physics. the correct policy: it is now generally admitted that it
Despite its talk of peace and brotherhood, this is was an imperialist war, fought not for ‘freedom’ but for
what Glasier, then Party Chairman, said at the 1903 economic reasons. During the early months of the war
Conference: Ramsay MacDonald (as might be expected) but also Keir
“Our foreign trade is flagging; our internal Hardie (as might not be) encouraged young men to enlist.
freedom and external defence are less Despite this wobbling the ILP should be acknowledged
secure; our military glory is dimmer; as the largest organisation in Britain in opposition to the
our national character, our literature, war and both Hardie and MacDonald came out against
our science, our inventions are in less the war. However its policy originated in a faulty concept
repute; our young and virile population is of what the war was all about. In a contemporary leaflet
quitting the country as if it were a sinking the ILP argued that the war was “a diplomatist’s war,
ship, and we are getting in pauper aliens made by about half-a-dozen men…we sit down and
and rich predatory aliens instead.”
ask ourselves… ‘Why has this war happened?’ the only
The ILP was oriented towards parliament from
answer we can give is, because Sir Edward Grey has
its inception. Hardie had been elected for West Ham
guided our foreign policy during the past eight years.”
South in 1892 but it was not until the formation of the
(Fenner Brockway, Inside the Left, p. 45). That Sir
Labour Representation Committee in 1900 that the real
Edward, what a bastard.
breakthrough occurred. The LRC, renamed the Labour
Such a conspiratorial theory blended well with the wet
Party in 1906, was essentially a tactical move of the
pacifism endemic in the lower ranks and the antagonism
formerly Liberal-orientated trade unions but until 1918
to Tsarist Russia. But the diplomatic cause theory was

Socialist Standard October 2009 13


to cause problems for the ILP, as it attracted a host of The PLP wanted (as well it might) loyalty in exchange for
golden daffodils in the shape of the Union of Democratic endorsement (which essentially meant actually getting
Control. The UDC essentially consisted of Liberals, some elected). Neither side was willing to give way, leading to
high ranking who wished for a more democratic and an inevitable break. However behind this was the looming
open foreign policy. They also viewed the war as caused shadow of MacDonald. Disaffiliation occurred in the
by secret diplomacy. The bourgeois intellectuals of the summer of 1932. MacDonald had formed his National
UDC, including HN Brailsford, migrated into the ILP Government with his power-hungry toadies and the
diluting the Northern spit and sawdust of the early party Tories the previous year. The Labour Party was badly
and providing the germ of the London based ‘intellectual’ split and in severe disarray. A major realignment seemed
(wobbly) ILP of the 1930s and after. certain. To the ILPers it seemed as if their time had come.
The First World War saw the ILP gain a Red reputation After disaffiliation the ILP clearly didn’t know what
with its somewhat half-hearted backing of the Russian to do. Archibald Fenner Brockway, darling of the old left
Revolution and its incidental association with the ‘Red and big cheese of the ‘30s ILP, remarked: “Since 1932 the
Clydeside’ strikers. The war also saw the death of Hardie Party has been a crucible of the change from reformism
in late 1915 and the rise of James Maxton. to revolutionism” (Inside the Left, p. 237). ‘Revolutionism’
clearly meant desperately jobbing around for popular
Golden Age leftwing causes. In the course of the seven remaining
Before the First World War the ILP and the Labour years of the 30s the ILP
Party were pretty much identical. The ILP leaders, “experimented in many directions, at one time
notably Ramsay MacDonald (ILP Chairman 1906-9), were approaching the Communist International, and at
also those of the Labour Party. The 1918 constitution, another moving towards the Trotskyist position, at one
particularly through the introduction of local Labour stage attaching its hope to united fronts and at another
Parties, redefined the Labour Party not just as a political reverting to purism, at one period going all out to prepare
wing of the trade unions but as a party in itself. As a for Soviets and at another recognising again the value of
result the ILP had to redefine itself and in the 1920s its Parliament.” (Inside the Left, p. 237)
role came to be that of the left wing of the Labour Party. Reflecting this uncertainty of orientation and plagued
At first such a role was of considerable use to the party. by internal factions (pro- and anti-CPGB and Trotskyist)
Boosted by the ‘successes’ of the Labour Party, the ILP membership plummeted. Immediately before disaffiliation
reached unprecedented heights in 1926 with an all-time the ILP had 16,700 members in 653 branches. By 1935,
high of 60,000 members in 1075 branches and a New just three years later this was down to 4,400 members in
Leader circulation of 70-80,000. Three years later the ILP 284 branches. This was a particularly dramatic decline
had 37 MPs plus another 123 who were members of the given the ongoing depression which had boosted almost
party standing under other endorsement. all other left wing groups and the ILP’s relatively firm
In 1924, to mark the new left turn, the ILP issued handling of Spain (sending a contingent including George
the report of its Socialist Plan Committee. Also known Orwell) and fascism (giving important backing during the
as “Socialism in our time”, this became the basis of Battle of Cable Street).
ILP policy. It defined socialism as the establishment Despite this the ILP retained local predominance in
of “a minimum living income” and the “nationalisation parts of Glasgow with numerous local councillors and
of the pivots of capitalism” (i.e. “the banking system, a range of MPs. This was partly due to an electoral pact
land, mining, electrical generation and distribution, and with Big Labour and lasted until around 1950. There
transport.” (Fenner Brockway, Inside the Left, p. 148) were other residual centres of strength including Merthyr,
In other words a typical confection of Leftist pseudo- Bradford, Norwich, Derby and rather bizarrely Great
socialism. With the exception of nationalisation of Yarmouth (where one LF Bunnewell was ILP councillor
land and the minimum wage this was essentially the from 1937 to after 1975).
programme adopted by the Labour Party in the late 30s
and carried out by the 1945-51 government. Given this it Second World War and after
might well be asked, “what was the point of the continued The ILP recognised the Second World War as
existence of the ILP?” The answer is not a lot as we shall basically a conflict between rival capitalists. However
see. confusion remained. The ILP’s ‘Peace Terms’ were: 1.
Self determination of ‘peoples’, 2. Subordination of
Disaffiliation
Something very bizarre happened to the ILP in
the early 1930s. Ordinarily the left wing acts as the
shock troops of the Labour Party, brought out at
election time to do donkey work for a small pay off
after. Despite grumbling this usually works well.
However occasionally the left gets ideas above its
station - the Militant case is typical - or revolts at
the unpleasant doings of the Parliamentary party.
In this case the particular left of the era receives
the order of the boot. They never want to go despite
the sniping and grumbling and the parting is
acrimonious. After the McDonald debacle however
the ILP left voluntarily. This turned out to be a
Maxton with Campbell
ghastly mistake from their point of view.
Stephen and Fenner
Officially the issue at stake was over Standing Brockway, pictured
Orders - whether ILP MPs should without fail follow with international
the Labour Party line. The ILP MPs, led by Maxton, students at
essentially wanted freedom of action - to justify an ILP summer school
their separate existence as much as anything else. in the 1930s.

14 Socialist Standard October 2009


The disease
nations to ‘international unity’
and 3. “The establishment of an
international economic organisation
for the distribution of the world’s

that is capitalism
resources according to the needs of
all peoples”. All of which displays the
ILP failure to recognise that whilst
the world’s resources are still owned
and controlled by the capitalist class,
conflicts between sections of that
class are inevitable. What’s better - treating the symptoms or dealing with the cause?
The 1945 election was rather
successful for the ILP with three
candidates, James Maxton, George hen a person is ill a compe- tem; so many, in fact, that it points
McGovern and the Reverend
Campbell Stephen, elected (one more
than the Communist Party). Fresh
with a new influx the ILP seemed set
W tent doctor will attempt to
identify all relevant symp-
toms: high temperature, site of aches
to the fact that there is a large audi-
ence of readers dissatisfied with the
status quo, knowing the current sys-
and pains, loss of appetite, heart- tem doesn’t work for them. An audi-
for revival. The success was not to rate, blood pressure, etc. etc. Fol- ence aspiring to structural changes?
last lowing diagnosis, treatment will be One World, Ready or Not – The
Maxton died little less than a offered in the form of dietary advice, Manic Logic of Global Capitalism by
year later. The following year his physiotherapy, drugs, surgery or William Greider (US writer on eco-
replacement, James Carmichael some combination of these or other nomics and politics over several
joined up with Big Labour. As did remedies. If the aim is to cure the ill- decades, contributor to The Nation
McGovern and Campbell. Fenner ness and prevent its return then the and former editor of Rolling Stone)
Brockway also took the jump, in causes of the disease will need to be is one such book. Greider succeeds
1947. Maxton had clearly been identified and eliminated. Effective brilliantly in proving his contention
holding the party together and treatment can only follow correct di- that the global economy is sowing
without him the thing fell apart. agnosis of the cause. The doctor will “creative destruction” everywhere by
Re-affiliation might have saved the seek to understand family history, explaining symptom after symptom
day. In 1945 it had knocked on working conditions, living condi- of capitalism’s failure of the major-
Labour’s door, asking very politely for tions, e.g. is the patient living in an ity. What are some of the symptoms
re-affiliation, but Labour (sensibly) area threatened by any form of pol- of the disease that is capitalism?
didn’t open it. lution, etc. Regular check-ups and Widening gaps between haves and
Left out in the cold the ILP fished preventive care are the surest way to have-nots; rising poverty nationally
around for other potential alliances avoid the onset of serious illness and and internationally; rising unem-
including with us. At the 1947 an appropriate regimen leading to a ployment – ditto; no lasting gains
Conference a motion proposed ‘loose healthy lifestyle will more likely ensure from union activity extending over
links’ and joint campaigns (peace, non-return of the previous disease. a century; a ban on unionised work
colonial freedom and other ‘causes’) Political commentary on and di- in many countries; more temporary
with the Anarchist Federation, the agnosis of society’s ills, however, workers replacing former permanent
Commonwealth Party and the SPGB. tend to focus on discussion of how positions; increasing poverty, hunger
We said no. Further proposals were to treat the symptoms with scant re- and homelessness; declining health
made in 1954 (“Need for a United gard to eliminating the causes. Re- care for many; serious environmental
Socialist Party”) and late 1957. We form rather than structural change. problems, etc. etc. Greider exposes
debated representatives of the ILP, There continues to be a plethora of all these symptoms and more with
including in 1928 Maxton himself, books published both criticising and detailed background evidence and
on numerous occasions throughout offering reforms to the capitalist sys- numerous examples from most parts
its career, the last being in Bolton in
1972.
The ILP gradually faded from view. How healhty is your economic system?
It soldiered on however until someone
let it back in. In 1975 it re-entered
the Labour Party as Independent
Labour Publications. Actually this
was a bit of a cheat as individual
members joined up and on 31 March
1975 the party as such declared itself
terminated (a similar thing happened
to the trotskyist Revolutionary
Communist Party in 1949).
Despite the fact that the
Independent Labour Party does not
now exist, its ghost may be found
haunting Left wing shindigs and
the like. It remains well thought of
by Leftists of a historical bent, but
clearly not well remembered.
KAZ

Socialist Standard October 2009 15


of the globe. effective way to mobilise the po-
The book is a fine resource of in-
vestigation and enlightening statis-
litical issue but the true target
should be the systems of human
Big
tics including details of interviews repression.” - There – he said it!
with workers, corporate CEOs, gov-
ernment officials and economists.
Social consequences are largely
ignored by capital. Evidence of this
Brother
Common cures (reforms) recom- is everywhere from the countries
mended include regulating finance
capital, increasing, decreasing or
with the richest economies to dirt-
poor nations with all populations ex-
and the
shifting the weighting ratio of tax ploited or deliberately abandoned for
from one sector to another, regulat-
ing trade differently, implementing
economic reasons by local and global
capital. More families and individu-
Robots
and honouring stronger workers’ and als are impoverished, hungry and

A
few weeks ago the Party
made homeless held a meeting in London
each successive entitled ‘Here Come the
year in coun- Robots’. It was a look at the
tries from Africa, impact and implications of
Asia, Europe to technological advance on society.
the Americas A lively discussion followed with
and the general various opinions and reservations
public are afraid
expressed.
that they, too,
Few people would deny that
may fall victim
among the changes technology has
to the disease as
brought there have been tremen-
they tighten their
belts and try and
dous improvements to our produc-
Above: the author. Right: his book tive capabilities, if not always to our
take precautions; but they have been
human rights, the restructuring of taught to see capitalism as a sys- personal circumstances, or that in a
the World Bank, the IMF and central tem “too big to fail.” They have also socialist society modern technology
banks. Greider’s recommendations been taught to be afraid of consider- will be vital in making sure everyone
here can be likened to increasing the ing the alternative of dismantling the gets adequate food, housing and
dose of palliative medicines without system and they continue to shout medical care.
treating the cause. Implement radical “reform.” Yes, they willingly keep Not everyone is happy with the
reforms of the system in an attempt taking the palliative medicine rath- intrusions and impositions made
to rein in the most divisive runaway er than working together to eradi- on our lives by new technology,
aspects of capitalism (the most inva- cate the disease for the benefit of however, or the fact that many of us
sive aspects of the disease) but leave themselves and future generations.
the system in place and hope it won’t Greider’s final chapter includes
run amok again or get hijacked by some notes on possible surgery
more pesky capitalists at a later date. and examples of individuals giving
Treating only the symptoms, i.e. out preventive advice; promoting
reforming the system, is ultimately true sustainable development; evi-
doomed to failure in society as in the dence from environmental technolo-
patient. Capital has no interest in gists which confirms that saving the
that which is not in its own interest. world is possible at such time that
Governments are limited in their abil- there is steady-state equilibrium
ity to implement reforms anyway as with the natural world. This sur-
they are pulled in various directions gery is possible but not on any agen-
by the power of capital’s demands da to be undertaken by the mon-
and the need to appease their con- etary, for-profit, capitalist system.
stituents enough to remain in power What needs to be recognised much
in the short term. Greider’s proposed more widely is that the whole set-up
reforms are laid out with the caveat (capitalism/the free-market econo-
that he has no expectations that any my/monetarism) is one enormous
of them would be implemented (in scam against those who produce the
his case by the US government) and wealth, whether globally or locally.
with the additional observation that Those who produce the wealth are
much of what the government does is currently all part of a huge lottery;
useless or harmful to broadly shared this year, this place, I’m in work; next
prosperity. In other words it allows year, some other place, maybe you’ll
or even encourages the disease to be in work. But, just like a game of
spread. Markets, money and mon- chance, some manage to stay lucky
ey markets don’t play by rules en- and others never get a look in. If you
dorsed or understood by consumers. are one of the multitude who has
“Whilst claiming to promote hu- needed to work in order to live, you
man freedom capitalism profits have been duped. The causes of the
concretely from the denial of free- disease have been identified. It’s time
dom, especially of the workers em- to remove them completely. Only a
ployed by capitalist enterprise.” structural change will do.
“Consumer boycotts can be an JS

16 Socialist Standard October 2009


seem content to be constantly connect- fact that Britain was united with the
ed to our computers, mobile phones
or iPods. “Don’t people read books
anymore?” asked one visitor, and he
New dictatorship of Stalin’s Russia against
the dictatorship of Hitler’s Germany
was conveniently overlooked. This
war like the previous one was fought
was not entirely reassured when it was
pointed out that it is now possible to
walk round with a digital bookcase of
books in your pocket.
roots of for economic reasons not ideological
ones.
Ever since 1945 the world has
experienced local conflicts. Korea,
The question that concerns most
of us, of course, is who is in control of
all this technology? Under capitalism,
conflict Suez, Vietnam, India/Pakistan – the
list is endless. There has not been

W
a day since 1945 when the British
it’s not us. A couple of stories recently e have had two world army has not been engaged in some
in the papers highlighted the ques- wars and countless local sort of conflict, and every one of them
tion. Ironically, the first one concerned conflicts over the struggle has been depicted as something to
George Orwell’s novel, 1984. “Big for raw materials, trade routes and do with freedom, democracy or some
brother would have approved”, said the spheres of influence. Capitalism such laudable purpose. The present
article. (Guardian, 20 July). is a competitive society and the tensions in the Middle East, however,
In a mix-up over copyright, Amazon, logical outcome of the resultant with its struggles for access to oil
the online booksellers, have, without conflict is military violence. so nakedly obvious it has become
warning, used their remote technol- The first world war was based increasingly difficult for governments
ogy to erase customers’ digital copies on the struggle for colonies as well to disguise the economic basis of the
of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and as access to the coal, iron and steel disputes.
1984. The cost of the books, which of Europe. It led to the collapse of Capitalism is a dynamic system
had been bought and paid for, was governments, thrones and empires, and yesterday’s struggle for coal
refunded we are assured. But how and the redrawing of national and steel may have been somewhat
reassuring is it to know that someone, borders. More importantly to the overshadowed by the conflicts over
at an anonymous desk somewhere has world’s working class it led to mass oil. This in its turn may give way to
the power to do that? In Orwell’s novel destruction, death and injury. It another source of military dispute
was depicted in this country as – lanthanide metals. “Global supply
a device known as a “memory hole”
a war against militarism and in of the rare-earth metals, which
was used to eradicate unapproved
defence of freedom. Shortly after are vital to the mechanisms
literature. Amazon can do the same,
the cessation of that of hybrid cars, wind
it seems, at the touch of a computer
war the turbines,
keyboard.
The second story is nothing to do iPods,
with fiction. It involves the latest must- lasers,
have military toy being tested by the super-
US army. Unfortunately, this is no high- efficient
tech cuddly teddy bear. light bulbs
and radar
Rumours have been coming out
systems
about the Energetically Autonomous British is 95 per
Tactical Robot (EATR for short) an working cent controlled
unstoppable military robot that powers class was to enjoy by China.
itself by devouring any organic material the freedom of the The country’s
in its path - trees, grass and even, ac- labour exchange dominance of the
cording to some reports, dead bodies and slum market is the
on the battlefield. housing. result of a
Its inventors are horrified that such The “war deliberate 20-year
suggestions have been made. Although to end bid by Beijing to
the EATR does indeed power itself on all wars” cast itself as the
organic material, it is not intended to saved the ‘Opec of rare
be fuelled by dead soldiers they say. British capitalist earth metals’.”
“We completely understand the public’s class from the (Times, 28
concern about futuristic robots feeding encroachment August)
on the human population, but that is on its markets One of the
not our mission” they assure us in the and empire by its countries that
Guardian article (21 July). German rivals. has a supply
The second world of lanthanide is
The machine apparently has a built-
war with its advanced Australia and they
in system which helps it determine the
armaments was to bring are at present considering an
nature of the material being ingested.
the horror of war home to the civilian offer from China to buy a 51 per
And according to Dr Robert Finkelstein,
population as never before, with cent share of their source. This
one of its inventors, “If it’s not on the cities wiped out and whole countries
menu, it’s not going to eat it”. has caused real concern to the
razed to the ground. Again this was Japanese capitalist class who
It’s all about good taste, then? depicted as a war against the evils
NW have threatened to take
of dictatorship and in up the matter with
defence of democracy the World Trade
and freedom. The Organisation.

Socialist Standard October 2009 17


“Chinese export quotas of rare earth metals fall below to military action. The awful truth is that it is members
Japan’s demands, forcing even the largest consumers of the working class who own no part of these resources
there to rely on smuggled materials to meet about a who take part in the resultant conflicts and suffer the
quarter of their annual needs. A draft of the Chinese plan resultant tragedies of war.
has been seen by senior executives at several of Japan’s RD
largest trading houses and has sparked fears that
China is aiming to step up
dramatically its programme of
quota reductions. Beijing has
cut exports by about 6 per
cent annually over the past
decade.” (Times, 28 August)
It is impossible to foretell
how capitalist rivalries will
develop but the growing
monopoly of the rare metals
market by China is a potential
source of economic conflict
that could lead to a future
military struggle. Capitalism
by its very nature breeds
competition between nations
over such sources of raw
materials. This produces
threats and counter-threats
which leads to ultimatums,
trade boycotts and eventually

The SLP of America: a


premature obituary?
B
y some accounts the Socialist not appeared for many months. Some of of its leaders, a revolt which led to two
Labor Party of America has its locals are still meeting and its ideas breakaways, the first, in 1903, to found
ceased to function. It has lost its live on in its offshoots and breakaways the Socialist Labour Party of Great
premises and its paper, The People, has but that’s all. Britain, the second, in 1904, to found us,
Founded in 1876, for the the Socialist Party of Great Britain.
first twenty or so years it was During this period De Leon’s position
a reformist organisation – at on the relative importance of political
least, it advocated reforms of and industrial action changed. At first
capitalism as well as its concept he insisted that political action – as
of socialism – not unlike the action aimed at getting control of political
German Social Democratic power – was paramount, with industrial
Party of which many of its organisation as supportive, to back up if
founding and later members need be the verdict of the ballot box as
had been members before well as to take over and run production
emigrating to America. Things immediately after the capture of state
began to change with the entry power. Later, as the agitation built up
into its ranks of Daniel De Leon that eventually led to the foundation of
and his election as editor of the Industrial Workers of the World in
The People in 1892. De Leon 1905 (in which he played a prominent
campaigned for the SLP to part), he changed the emphasis,
drop its reform programme; arguing that it was organisation
which it did in 1900 (which led on the industrial field – to ‘take
to a split and the formation of and hold’ the means of production
the reformist Socialist Party of – that was the more important, with
America of Eugene Debs and political action relegated to the role of
Norman Thomas). supporting the take-over of industry by
The SLP of America, and neutralising and disbanding the state.
its translations by De Leon The SPGB in effect adopted De
of Marx’s writings, was one Leon’s original position while the SLPGB
of the inspirations of the embraced his later ‘socialist industrial
‘impossibilist revolt’ within the unionism’. Even though a casual
Social Democratic Federation in observer might struggle to detect the
Daniel De Leon Britain against the opportunism subtlety of the difference but would see
and undemocratic practices rather the points of similarity between
18 Socialist Standard October 2009
the two parties, ideological battle raged over this issue
for decades between us and them until the demise of the
SLPGB in the 1970s.
In the meantime other, perhaps more important,
differences emerged. Like us the SLP of America
recognised that socialism was out of the question in Funny Money
Russia in 1917 (though most of the SLP in Britain went
over to the Communist Party when it was formed in 1921, WE HAVE received a letter from Paul Grignon, of
providing some of its early leaders). When, however, it Canada, (www.moneyasdebt.net) challenging the
was reported that Lenin had made a passing favourable analysis in our article “The Myth of Magic Money” in
comment on De Leon’s ‘socialist industrial unionism’ this column last December. He enclosed for review a
blueprint as a way to run industry, the SLP took a more DVD of his “animated movie series ‘Money as Debt’
favourable view of Bolshevik Russia. In fact, until the which”, he says, “has been viewed by millions worldwide
Russian invasion of Finland in 1939, the SLP held that and universally praised as the best explanation of our
Russia was some sort of ‘proletarian regime’ even if its money system ever produced”.
politics were wrong (a bit like the Trotskyist position). Sorry, but we can’t join in the chorus of praise as
Even after 1939 it didn’t recognise Russia as state the DVD incorporates all the myths about money and
capitalist, preferring to call it ‘industrial feudalism’ or, later, banks that currency cranks have been propagating for
‘bureaucratic collectivism’. years. It even has a top-hatted banker taking off his
Another difference to emerge was over ‘socialism in hat and using it to produce money out of it just as a
one country’, especially America. De Leon had always magician produces a rabbit.
tried to project the SLP as in the American revolutionary Apparently, all you need to start a bank is to deposit
a sum of money with the central bank and, hey presto,
tradition (partly to dissipate its early German-American
you can start lending out nine times that amount
character), for instance praising the founding fathers
and charge interest on it to boot. Obviously this is
of the US and criticising schoolchildren who refused to
nonsense. It’s the familiar mistake of assuming that a
salute the American flag. His successors continued this
10 percent cash-to-other-assets ratio means that, for a
and in its publications reference to a ‘socialist America’
given amount of cash deposited with it, a bank can lend
and a ‘socialist Britain’ could be found. Even so, the SLP
out nine times that amount whereas what it means is
continued to publish material for pre-1914 immigrants
that it can only lend out nine-tenths of it as it has to
in non-English languages (Hungarian, Bulgarian, South
keep 10 percent as cash.
Slavonian) until the 1960s.
Banks are no different from anyone else who lends
Then there was the question of ‘labour time vouchers’. money – individuals, pawnbrokers or loan sharks – they
Marx had mentioned these as one possible way of can only lend what they’ve got (either because it’s theirs
distributing consumer goods and services in the very or because they’ve borrowed it themselves). Grignon’s
early days of socialism had it been established in 1875. confusion is partly the fault of academic economics
De Leon and, after his death in 1914, his successors which teaches that bank loans are a form of money in
turned this into a dogma, insisting that these vouchers addition to the money the bank already has (Grignon is
had to be introduced and maintained for a number of right about one thing: money deposited in a bank is a
years as the method of distribution, despite the fact that loan to that bank).
the development of the productive forces since 1875 had In his letter Grignon quotes from an explanatory
made it possible to introduce free access more or less booklet Modern Money Mechanics, first issued by the
immediately after the establishment of socialism. Believe Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago in 1975, which says
it or not, this is still a burning issue between us and some that from an initial deposit of cash the banking system
DeLeonists on internet discussion forums. can go on to eventually make total loans of nine times
There were similarities too. The SLP had the same its amount. Quoting this booklet seems to be obligatory
definition of working class as us (despite its for modern currency cranks, but they could quote just
logo being a working man with bulging as easily quote from any economics textbook (except
muscles wielding a huge hammer). that they see US Federal Reserve as their main enemy).
It contested elections – every US This theory, however, does not say or even imply
presidential election between that the extra loans have been created out of nothing by
1892 and 1976 – on a a mere stroke of the pen or, in Grignon’s contemporary
programme offering no version, by “the flash of a few keystrokes”. If you follow
reforms of capitalism. It the theory carefully you will see that each extra bank
defended Marx’s view loan has to be preceded by an extra bank deposit of
against the Leninists about the which only nine-tenth can be re-lent. Grignon accepts
possibility of a peaceful establishment this for when the first loan supposedly “created out of
of socialism. Most SLP members eventually came to see nothing” finds its way back to the banking system. The
Russia as state capitalist and that free access was the bank receiving this, he says (correctly), can only lend
socialist method of distribution to be reached as soon as out nine-tenths of it. Logically, he ought to accept this
practicable. The SLP also abandoned its policy for the first deposit and the first loan too.
of setting up rival socialist unions and, like us, His ideal is a capitalism in which banks have
joined the existing unions for all their faults. become like savings-and-loan institutions in the US
The SLP has its place in the history of (building societies would be the nearest here) and where
working class ideas and organisation in the the state has a monopoly in the creation of interest-
English-speaking world. ‘Names’ such as Jack free money. What he doesn’t realise is that this is the
London and James Connolly passed through it. actual situation: banks are glorified savings-and-loan
It made some important mistakes, but was not institutions and the only the state bank has the power
fundamentally anti-working class like Leninism to create money out of nothing. And cash is interest-
and its offshoots. Unfortunately, they still survive. free.
ALB

Socialist Standard October 2009 19


Book Reviews
Market behaviour is one of the basic assumptions of
academic economics. He doesn’t
the long or short term. They don’t
behave as we humans do. In fact
seem to realise that in doing so some psychologists (as in the film The
The Mind of the Market : How
he has abandoned one of the key Corporation) have pointed out that if
Biology and Psychology Shape
assumptions of the von Mises school a human behaved in the same way
Our Economic Lives. By Michael
of economics. In fact he goes so far as capitalist firms do – concentrating
Shermer. Holt Paperback. New
as to concede that if people really did obsessively on one single aim (in this
York. 2008.
behave in this way, then capitalism case, making profits) to the neglect of
could never have survived; even all other considerations – they would
capitalism relies on the social nature be classified as psychopaths.
Some of the
of humans and their biological and Shermer shows up here the flaw
chapters in
psychological need to trust and co- in the defence of capitalism put up by
this book are
operate with each other. ideologists such as von Mises – they
interesting and
Shermer accepts the theories assume that present-day capitalism
informative,
of the “evolutionary psychologists” is based entirely on freely-negotiated
despite its
according to which our reactions and contract between individuals, as if
author being
decisions – including in economic production and trade were carried on
a self-declared
matters – are influenced by the fact by individual, or at least small-scale
follower of the
that our brains evolved when we were producers, and shopkeepers. This
free-market
hunter-gatherers (as opposed to by might have been the case in Adam
ideologist,
purely rational calculations). No doubt Smith’s day (mid-18th century) but is
Ludwig von
our brain did evolve under these not the case today. Today production
Mises and so
circumstances but this does not mean is carried on in large-scale productive
an apologist for capitalism and a
that we are therefore unsuited to live units by producers contracted to
dedicated opponent of anything that
by acquiring what we need to live work for wages, but not by other
seems to be socialism. Shermer is also
in any other way. The human brain individuals but by capitalist firms
a leading American ‘skeptic’ and a
that evolved is a brain that allows us which, while in contract law have a
Scientific American columnist.
to adapt to a great variety of ways of fictitious ‘personality’, are not really
Economics, as now taught, is an
acquiring what we need. persons which biological brains.
odd discipline. It defines itself as
We can live just as much under Their behaviour cannot therefore
the study of the allocation amongst
a capitalist system (where Shermer be explained by evolutionary or any
competing ends of resources in
says we are ‘consumer-traders’) as in other kinds of psychology, but only
short supply. To express this
a socialist society (where we’d become by a study of the impersonal laws
mathematically it has to make the
‘giver-takers’). If, as the evolutionary of the market and profit-making
absurd assumption that the ends are
psychologists claim, that our brains which impose themselves on those
infinite, i.e. that people are infinitely
predispose us not to live freeloaders who make decisions within them
greedy. It also assumes that economic
and to get satisfaction out of co- irrespective of what these human
actors (corporations, workers,
operating, and even helping, our decision-makers might think or want.
consumers) act entirely rationally.
fellow humans, these are features that ALB
Von Mises in fact regarded economic
would fully fit in with socialist society.
decision-making as the archetypal
Shermer thinks that they point to
form of rational decision-making.
In recent years, some economists,
capitalism being the best system for Made to Waste
humans to produce and share out
calling themselves ‘behavioural
wealth. Made to Break. Technology and
economists’, have decided to
However, his defence of capitalism Obsolescence in America. By Giles
investigate the actual behaviour of
is pretty pathetic. On the basis of Slade. Harvard University Press.
consumers, i.e. individual buyers.
studies of the behaviour of people 2006.
Not surprisingly they have found that
who are still hunter-gatherers today
no consumer (not even the writers
involved in face-to-face barter and of
of economic textbooks) decide what
the measured effects on the brains In 1960 the
to buy on the basis of some rational
of individuals choosing to buy American
calculation about equalising the
something, he concludes that ‘trade’ investigative
“marginal utility” of all the things they
and ‘trading’ is good for us. This journalist,
buy. All sorts of other considerations
ignores that ‘trade’ is not the only way Vance Packard,
enter into their decisions as to
of transferring the use of something brought out
what to buy (egg what other people
from one person to another. There is a book The
are buying, status, etc which the
also giving and taking. So, this is not Waste Makers.
advertising business exploits).
an argument for buying and selling Subtitled
It could be argued that the study
as best suited to our ‘biology and “A startling
of what motivates consumers is
psychology’. revelation
outside the scope of economics. Which
But the main flaw in Shermer’s of planned
is the position we Marxists have taken
argument is that there is an enormous wastefulness and obsolescence in
with our criticism of “the final futility
difference between face-to-face barter industry today”, it exposed how
of final utility”. We have left the study
and shopping and inter-capitalist capitalist firms making consumer
of the satisfaction users might derive
trade. Inter-capitalist trade is carried goods were deliberately designing
from the use-values they acquire to
on by states and corporations which them to break down after a calculated
psychology. Shermer goes along with
do act in the ruthlessly calculating period of time so as to encourage
the behavioural economists who have
way that orthodox economics repeat sales.
done some useful work in demolishing
supposes individuals do. They do This new book covers the
the myth of the rationally-calculating,
aim to maximise monetary profits in same ground and is a history of
narrowly self homo economicus that

20 Socialist Standard October 2009


‘obsolescence’ in America. Slade disassembly and reuse as part of the financial service brokers – “negotiating
identifies three kinds: a product can product life cycle”. This assumes that deals on insurance, mortgages and
become obsolete because something the capitalist economy is driven by pensions, medical cover, holidays and
new, and genuinely better, has been consumers. It isn’t. It’s driven by the car breakdown services” etc – and
invented (as happened, for instance, drive of capitalist firms to make as investment funds with a sideline
to cut throat razors and gas lighting); much profit as they can. in industrial arbitration.” Unions,
or because of advertising; or because ALB sometimes under the well entrenched
it had been deliberately built-in to leadership of full time officials, have
the product (also known as ‘death at times acted against the interests
dating’).
The manufacturers and their
Choosing an of the working class but such
occurrences should not be understood
advertisers were quite open about occupation as a fault of the union form per se but
what they were doing. Thus a Justus as an expression of the contradictions
George in 1928: Reports & Reflections on the 2009 of the position of workers under
“We must induce people . . . UK Ford-Visteon Dispute: a Post- capitalism.
to buy a greater variety of goods Fordist Struggle. Past Tense, June The assumption – which is not
on the same principle that they 2009. www.past-tense.org.uk explicitly stated in the pamphlet but
now buy automobiles, radios and hinted at in certain passages – that
clothes, namely: buying goods not capitalism can be overcome through
to wear out, but to trade in or to “On 31st of March 2009 Ford/Visteon industrial action alone and that
discard after a short time . . . the announced the closure of three this occupation was part of such
progressive obsolescence principle . factories in the UK and the sacking a process, is not one that should
. . means buying for up-to-dateness, of 610 workers... No guarantees were go unquestioned. Workers who
efficiency, buying for . . . the sense of given concerning redundancy or struggle to maintain and better their
modernness rather than simply for pensions payments. The management conditions should be commended, but
the last ounce of use” (quoted p. 58). had made the workers work up to the until the working class consciously
And a Brooks Stevens in 1958: last minute, knowing that they would and politically organise to end the
“Our whole economy is based on not even receive any wages for their wages system the same battles will
planned obsolescence and everybody final shifts.” In response, workers have to be fought over and over again.
who can read without moving his from the Belfast plant spontaneously It is true that the bitter experience
lips should know it by now. We make occupied the sites and in a few hours of the Visteon workers may lead
good products, we induce people to were joined by several hundred local some of them to question the basis
buy them, and then next year we supporters. On hearing the news, of capitalist society, but from start to
deliberately introduce something workers from the Basildon and finish all this struggle was attempting
that will make those products old Enfield plants went into occupation was to get the best from a bad
fashioned, out of date, obsolete. We do the following day. This pamphlet situation, not to bring about world
that for the soundest reason: to make concentrates mainly on the Enfield socialism.
money” (quoted p. 153). occupation, which lasted for 9 days, A myriad of experiences from
This provoked a conflict with and is written by a supporter of the everyday life can provide enough
engineers, who knew they could make workers. motivation for the disenchanted to
solid products that could last for Of particular interest is the ask themselves ‘why do I have to do
years, but in the end their reluctance author’s analysis of the role of this everyday?’ To steal a pithy phrase
was overcome (they, too, are in the the union during the occupation, from the Socialist Party of Australia
end only hired employees who have to particularly there role “as mediators “it is Capitalism itself, unable to
do their employer’s bidding). It is also and defenders of capitalist solve crisis, unemployment and
enormously wasteful as still useable exploitation”. It is true that the poverty, engaging in horrifying wars,
products, and the material resources unions role is one of mediation and which digs its own grave. Workers
that went into making them, are as such does nothing to challenge the are learning by bitter experience and
simply thrown away. material basis of the relation between bloody sacrifice for interests not their
Things have got worse since workers and employers, however as own. They are learning very slowly.
Packard’s day, with the use of the existence of the wages system is Our job is to shorten the time, to
soldered circuits in electronic devices only questioned by a tiny minority speed up the process”
that are now part of everyday life. this can be of no great surprise, The workers at Visteon secured
These are easy and cheap to produce the unions do not work to establish a deal ten times greater than the
but their chipboards can’t be repaired. socialism because their members are original offer, their (and our) position
According to Slade, there is a growing not socialists. To write of unions as as materially dependent sellers of
problem of where to dispose of defenders of capitalist exploitation labour-power continues.
abandoned (but still useable) cell is a step too far, as the author of the DJP
phones (as mobile phones are called pamphlet accepts, “to be without a
in America) which, together with other union would usually be even worse
‘e-waste’, contain materials that are under present conditions.” Picture Credits
harmful to the environment. The real question is one of internal
cover: Earth: source, NASA
Like Packard Slade blames democracy and the extent in which ILP Banner, Public Domain
consumers, if not so much as the union is run by and for its Rapier missile in Oman - source, MOD UK
manufacturers. If, he argues, membership. Whilst all unions do p2: James Keir Hardie - Public Domain
have a certain amount of democratic p10: Global Trends - www.dni.gov
people take account of the effect on p13: Keir Hardie http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/
the environment of what they buy framework the amount of member ggbainhtml/ggbainabt.html
manufacturers will begin “to adopt participation is often lacking, perhaps p14: Maxton summer school 1930 - http://gdl.
design strategies that include not just not surprising when “unions are cdlr.strath.ac.uk/maxton/images/maxton041.
generally run today primarily as jpg
planned obsolescence but planned

Socialist Standard October 2009 21


Meetings OBITUARY
Winter Film Programme London Vincent Littlemore
Sundays at 6pm at 52 Clapham High St. Tuesday 13 October 7.30 pm West London branch are saddened to
NATIONALISM AND DANGEROUS have to report the death of Vincent Lit-
1 November -- The Fog of War (life & times NONSENSE tlemore two days before his 80th birth-
of Robert McNamara - 95 mins) Speakers: Gwynn Thomas & Danny day. He first came across the party at
15 November -- Matewan (mining dispute in Lambert. outdoor meetings in Manchester, where
1920’s Virginia - 142 mins) 52 Clapham High St, SW4 he originally came from, joining as a
29 November -- Sicko (American healthcare teenager and becoming an outdoor
speaker at Platts Fields and Alexandra
under scrutiny- 120 mins)
Park. Later he moved to London where
13 December -- Earthlings (Animals and
economic interests - 95 mins) Autumn Delegate he studied to become a quantity sur-
veyor. While pursuing his profession,
17 January -- Manufacturing Consent (part Meeting getting married and raising a family, his
one) (Noam Chomsky & the Media) Saturday 17 October 10.30am to membership lapsed but he remained a
31 January -- Manufacturing Consent (part 5.30pm steadfast socialist arguing the case for
two) Sunday 18 October 11.00am to socialism as the occasions arose. On
14 February -- Why we Fight (U.S. Army 5.00pm his retirement in 1994 he formally re-
training film - 98 mins) Socialist Party Head Office, 52 joined and became a regular attender
28 February -- Comrades (part one) (film Clapham High St, London SW4. at branch meetings in Chiswick until
about the Tolpuddle Martyrs) he suffered a stroke in 2002. After that
14th March -- Comrades (part two) he kept in regular touch by telephone
to discuss books about the state of the
Saturday 31 October 11am to 7pm Glasgow capitalist economy and how best to pub-
BOOK SALE Wednesday 21 October, 8.30pm licise the socialist case. The Party was
THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT represented at his non-religious funeral
Sale of novels as well as books on history,
Community Central Halls, 304 Maryhill in Leatherhead. Our condolences go to
politics and economics. his saughter Sue, the BBC journalist,
Road.
52 Clapham High St, SW4 and to her partner John Denham.

The Use of the Vote


The power you have Fifteen times the Tory, Liberal and Labour Parties have appealed
In the weeks of electoral excitement before polling day you will to you to help them with your votes. Fourteen times you, the work-
have been made to appreciate, at least a little, that you are, for ers, have used your votes against your own interests.
the moment, important people. Between elections you look up to Although the parties we have mentioned use different names
politicians and big business men as important, but during elections for their programmes and promises of legislation, there is very lit-
it is they who go to endless trouble to influence you and win your tle of importance dividing them. They are all concerned with trying
support for them and their policies. It is you who can make or mar to administer British capitalism as well as may be in a troubled
the career of a politician and you who can place power in the hands world of rival capitalist groups. In any big emergency like the crisis
of a government which during its term of office can. by taxation and of 1931 or in war they come together and form coalition govern-
tariff policies or by subsidies, raise some industries to prosperity ments
and bring others to their ruin. It is you who give power to govern- Whichever of them, you, the workers, vote for in an election, it
ments in whose hands rest decisions about peace and war. is a defeat for you. a betrayal of your own interests.

Power for no use (from Editorial, Socialist Standard, October 1959)


Since the Socialist Party of Great Britain was formed there have
been fourteen general elections in this country: this is the fifteenth.

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

22 Socialist Standard October 2009


The Hard Life and
Times of Alan Duncan

A
t this distance the coming general election And “good grace” again
promises – or should that be threatens – to become last year, when it
a contest between Gordon Brown and David emerged that while he
Cameron over who can be trusted to be the more ruthless was Shadow Business
and speedy as a slasher and sacker. After his expeditious Secretary, responsible
dealing with the crazier expense claims of the more for Tory policy on energy,
arrogant Tory MPs, Cameron could be seen as a nose Duncan’s private office
ahead – which may explain the manner in which he firmly received donations from
bumped Alan Duncan down the greasy pole, from Shadow the chairman of Vitol – one of the world’s top crude oil
Leader of the House to Shadow Justice Minister. It was traders.
all to do with Duncan allowing himself to be recorded,
by a man named Heydon Prowse, moaning about the Taliban
mistreatment and malnourishment of MPs: “No one who To put it moderately Duncan enjoys – and expends a
has done anything on the outside world, or is capable of lot of energy in – being the centre of attention. However
doing such a thing, will ever come into this place again, much this may please him it has also cultivated a
the way we are going. Basically it’s being nationalised. significant number of rivals and enemies. After the 2005
You have to live on rations and are treated like shit”. general election he declared himself to be a candidate
This raises the question of why there are always so many for the Tory leadership in place of the defeated Michael
candidates, in every constituency, fighting each other for Howard but had to withdraw rapidly after it was clear
a life of rations and abuse – but never mind. Cameron that there was no support for him – which he put down
at first tried to draw a veil over the problem by saying to the “Tory Taliban”. So it was to be expected, when
that he had “made it clear in no uncertain terms that the MP’s expenses scam was dragged into the open
when it comes to the mess of expenses, the words we Duncan’s claims would be closely scrutinised – especially
use, just as the actions we take, have got to demonstrate in view of the fact that, as Shadow Leader of the House,
completely that we share the public’s real fury at what he oversaw the party’s reform policy on the matter. The
went on in Parliament. Alan made a bad mistake and Daily Telegraph reported that he had claimed £1400 a
he has acknowledged that...I think we should leave it month mortgage interest on his Rutland home, recouped
at that”. But then Cameron returned from holiday in a over £4000 for gardening expenses during a three year
slightly different mood, demoting Duncan rather than period and claimed £598 for maintenance of a ride-
condemning him to the impoverishment of the back on lawn mower with £41 to repair a puncture in the
benches. This may have had something to do with machine. Some residents in his constituency saw this as
Duncan’s erratic background and standing as a Tory MP. nauseating enough to justify inviting passers-by to take a
ride on a lawn mower which they had set up in the street
Obscurity – and Heydon Prowse to cut a £ sign in Duncan’s lawn.
Elected in John Major’s surprise 1992 election win for Last May Have I Got News For You pursued Duncan by
the rock-solid Conservative seat of Rutland and Melton showing a passage from a previous appearance when he
– a nice reward for the offer of his home in Westminster boasted about his Second Home Allowance (he also owns
as headquarters for Major’s leadership campaign after two properties in Westminster) and described it as “a
Thatcher’s resignation in 1990 – Duncan spent some great system” – until Cameron went after him, when he
time in relative obscurity as a faultlessly handsome, agreed to refund the money and called for “the system” to
immaculate and fixedly smiling participant in group be changed. According to the website ConservativeHome
photographs until in December 1993 he blossomed as – notable for its combative style – a poll of 1600 grassroot
Parliamentary Private Secretary at the then Ministry Tories in Duncan’s constituency thought he should be
of Health. However any celebration of this promising sacked.
start was cruelly cut off just a month later after the
embarrassing news that he had lent an elderly neighbour Comfort
the money to buy his council house at a cut price under Members of Parliament come in many shapes, sizes
the right-to-buy scheme so beloved of Thatcher’s Tories. and origins. Duncan’s replacement as Shadow Leader
But three years later Duncan, who described himself as of the House is Sir George Young, an Old Etonian who
a libertarian member of the Thatcherite Conservative once complained of having to declare, as an MP, a gift
Way Forward, cashed in on the deal by buying the house of bottles of champagne and who revealed the depth of
from the neighbour – again at a very attractive price. his understanding of the meaning of poverty when he
His unavoidable resignation was greeted, with typical described the homeless as “people you step over when
asperity, by Giles Brandreth: “little Duncan has fallen you leave the opera”. Young was chairman of the House
on his sword...swiftly and with good grace”. Which of Commons Committee on Standards and Privileges
characteristic probably also featured in another episode when, in 2003, it gave judgement in the matter of the
when, as the owner of Harcourt Consultants – advising false expense claims by the Tory MP for Windsor, Michael
companies, governments and whoever can afford to pay Trend, amounting to over £90,000. Trend, apologising
on matters concerning oil and gas supplies – he made to the Commons, put it all down to his being “muddled
over £1 million through involvement in supplying oil to and naive”. Young’s committee were not unsympathetic
Pakistan after disruption of the flow from Kuwait in the and just suspended Trend for two weeks. A memory to
Gulf War. It might be thought that this said more about comfort Alan Duncan in the darkest days of his struggles
the reasons for the British involvement in that war than to survive on his rations.
all the inflated nonsense about rooting out terrorists. IVAN

Socialist Standard October 2009 23


Capitalism’s Priorities leave up to half their grapes
As various pieces of to wither on the vine in an
legislation pass through the attempt to squeeze the
US governmental machine market.” (Times, 29 August)
it is often observed that the Capitalism is a crazy system,
process is torturously slow. An obviously inside socialism we
example of this tardy procedure would deal with the problem
has recently been revealed in by drinking more champagne.
the proposed Health Bill. No
such delay is evidenced when A Modest Sort
it comes to military budgets. Away back in the bad
“With hardly any debate, a old days we had ruthless
powerful Senate committee dictators with over-bearing
Thursday approved President ideas of their own importance
Barack Obama’s $128 billion but today’s leaders are
request for military operations much more modest fellows.
in Iraq and Afghanistan for the In the past we had people
years within a few hundred metres of a
budget year beginning in October. The like the despot Stalin who regularly
manganese smelter, had excess lead in
move came as anxiety is increasing on polled over 100 percent at “elections”,
their blood. Local officials said that the
Capitol Hill over the chances for success nowadays in “democratic” Belorus
numbers could rise when further tests
in Afghanistan and as Obama weighs we have more self-effacing creatures
were carried out.” (Times, 21 August)
whether to send more forces to the at the helm of state. “The Belorusian
country. The war funding was approved strongman, Alexander Lukashenko,
Champagne Socialists admitted that he rigged the 2006 election
as the Appropriations Committee voted
In the past when Southern Californian
unanimously for a $636 billion spending because, he said, his popularity was so
fruit growers were faced with a glut and
measure funding next year’s Pentagon vast that the true margin of victory was
falling prices they let the fruit rot on the
budget.” (Huffington Post, 10 September) unbelievable and had to be cut from 93
trees. When castigated for this apparent
The health of the American working class to 80 per cent.” (Times, 28 August)
madness they pointed out the quite
is obviously of less importance than the
logical capitalist argument that they
military needs of the owning class.
would have to pay pickers wages for fruit
they couldn’t sell. When again they were
Poisoned By Capitalism
taken to task for this argument they were
Capitalism is a poisonous society.
offered by some charitable organisations
Thousands of coal miners have
the prospect of them supplying free
suffered lung diseases, thousands
labour and they would distribute to the
more in shipyards and factories have
needy. Again the fruit growers had an
been maimed by asbestos. In the mad
answer to that. “Every year charitable
scramble for more and more profits
organisations buy at cut-rate prices our
the owning class have endangered
unsold surplus. Giving it away would
the health and even the life of the
even spoil that source of income for us.”
working class. From China comes this
The fruitgrowers may have appeared
latest example of the profit system’s
heartless but from an economic
murderous nature. “More than 2,000
standpoint letting the fruit rot seemed the
children have been found to have lead
logical action. A similar solution is being
poisoning because Chinese factories
followed today by French wine producers.
greedy for profit have spewed out
“Hopes of a glut of cheap champagne
pollutants without carrying out even the
are set to be dashed when vineyards
most minor environmental monitoring.
meet next week to agree on a big cut in
Officials announced yesterday that 1,354
production to prop up prices. With sales
children under 14, who had been living
falling, producers may be ordered to
and going to school for more than two

ISSN 0037 8259


24 Produced and published by the Socialist Party of Great Britain, 52 Clapham Socialist
High Street,Standard
London SW4 October
7UN 2009

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