How can we defeat capitalism?

Building Socialist Political Parties 

and Organising for Real Social Change

In spite of several major Crises, such as the decade-long slump in the 1930s, and the similar and still continuing Depression commencing in 2008, the problems which caused them have not, and indeed cannot, be solved, whilever we live within a Capitalist Economic System.

For, it is primarily driven by maximising Profit for the Few, while directly extracting the wherewithall to maintain and extend the System from the the work and the pockets majority of the People - the Many!

And, the consequences throughout the last century have been totally horrendolus -

TWO World Wars with literally Tens of Millions of Deaths - entirely due to rival Capitalist powers wanting bigger shares.

And, also, there have been Revolutions in TWO of the biggest Countries in the World, whose stated purpose was to build Socialism and bury Capitalism for ever!

So, how has Capitalism survived?

While the evidence for its necessary termination is both everywhere and profuse: why have The People not rebelled and overturned this exploitative and unequal System?

It is primarily because literally ALL the means of disseminating and framing Information are in the biased hands of the Wealthy, and even the apparently Democratic Political Systems, worldwide, have been bought to both speak and act always in a pro-capitalist way.

Yet, even so, it has all been insufficient, and we are now living within a period of literally constant wars - either to suppress any divergence from the pro Capitalist Bloc, or to suppress any challenge to the dominance of the current hegemony of the Leading Capitalist Power - the USA. And, no matter what setbacks the war-mongers get, they simply redouble their efforts, to maintain the status quo - one way or another!

It is becoming an existential Crisis for Capitalism, and as they have NO solutions - they still carry on with the vast increases in Debt, which precipitated the continuing Crisis of 2008! It hasn't been a solution to that, so stepping it up again to even higher levels won't solve things now.

So, how can the People break out of their currently powerless position?

They have to FIRST bypass the usual means, and take to the streets!

And, then they must strive to build new Socialist Political Parties with the Theory necessary to inform their actions.

And that MUST be Marxist - BUT NOT the distorted versions of the Stalinist / Communist Parties, and even the Trotskyist aberrations of the 20th century, but a NEW and Genuine Marxism, based upon the philosophical and political contributions of Karl Marx - but brought up to date and fully extended into Science, where it is currently exposing the myths of Modern Sub Atomic Physics, as well as rejecting the many Damaging Revisions, in the name of Marxism, which are no such thing!

There is no shortage of Issues... Get out there and DEMONSTRATE!

One Global Economy, Two Giants

DeMOCKracy!

When the USA says it wants to see Democracy in Venezuela,
what do they really mean, and what is their real intention?

What are Real Democracy's necessary prerequisites and how is it subverted?

The usual call from the Powers-That-Be, in the rich Capitalist countries of the West, is for the "deprived nations" to be converted to "Democracy" (by force if necessary) as a solution to all their problems!

What? All by itself? And just by suggesting it?

"No, of course not: they will need guidance from US. We would send people in to help!"

What "people"? Soldiers with guns?

"Well occasionally, yes... There will be opponents to Democracy"

You should recognise the programme by now!

They have been "helping" in this way for some time... in Korea, then Vietnam, and latterly in many parts of Latin America, not to mention Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Yemen and many others. Will Venezuela be next?

Democracy protests in Venezuela

Can Democracy really be instituted this way?

Emphatically NOT!

Real democracy has to be an authentic bottom-up struggle of the people against the rule of rich and powerful individuals and cliques. For if the powerful remain in place, the resulting "Democracy" will always be a fake - indeed a DeMOCKracy, often worse than the system that preceded the regime change.

And what above all other factors prevents Real Democracy for forming? 

Concentrated Wealth and Power will always kill it STONE DEAD! 

So, all the means of establishing Wealth as an End-in-Itself must be made illegal, by a new democratic state! Inheritance of Wealth must be illegal too. While these unfair concentrations of power exist, the people cannot truly rule themselves.

All enterprises must become state-run services or grassroots worker cooperatives. And both Local and National Democratic Government must institute both full and regular information directly to the electors in public meetings, with an instituted instant recall, and immediate replacement of misbehaving / corrupt representatives.

Democracy means

Rule of the People, 

by the People

and

For the People

So, schemes instituted from above (or outside) are always intended to remove real democratic power.

Huge Risks for Economy and Politics

Another belter from Richard Wolff

Chris Hedges: "Democracy has become a facade"

Hedges may not be a real socialist, but he hits a few nails on the head in this speech

Nader blames YOU!

Ralph Nader, in a recent public meeting in Washington D.C, including, among his audience, a surprising number of very similar-to-himself past agitators, started his contribution with a liberal criticism of the current American political and corporate systems, basically from the standpoint of the US Constitution, and the Rights with which it had "endowed The People", and, by means of which, only a tiny fraction of the population could (and, indeed, in the past did) right the wrongs, first by concerted agitation, and, thereafter, via the usual legal systems of democracy, to get laws changed to complete the job.

It was an echo from the past, and an inaccurate one too! For, it effectively gave all the credit to small groups of people, like himself, who stood up and fought politically for Justice. But, that wasn't the full story at all!

He never mentioned the Socialist and Communist parties, who, along with the vastly growing Trade Unions, had forced Roosevelt to concede to their demands "OR ELSE!"in the depth of the 1930s Depression. That alone set the tone in which the small groups of liberal "do gooders" could then, for a time, effectively "act for the people". It had never before been the case, before that near-revolution, nor was it the case since that justified "Fear-of-the-People" had subsided, following the Second World War, and the gradual re-establishment of the total dominance of Corporate Capitalism.

Nader didn't mention Capitalism once!

No, it was never liberals like Nader who re-established our rights, but the Working Class in conscious political action, and with a Socialist leadership who knew what they had to do and why! And, it was that leadership that had been attacked and destroyed in the McCarthyite Witch-Hunts that had deprived the Working Class of that vital guidance, and which instead allowed the re-establishment of their own dominance, as of old.

So, Nader's admonishment of the Middle Class liberals for their reticence in fighting injustices was a sure revelation that he would never fight the real enemy and cause of both inequality and environmental destruction - The Capitalist System - in its unavoidable lunge to the Right in response to the major and still unresolved recession of 2008.

Once again it could only be addressed by a dedicated Socialist and genuinely anti-Capitalist leadership of an increasingly rebellious Working Class.

Global Capitalism: Economic Nationalism

The Sepember bi-monthly lecture by Wolff at the Judson Memorial Church in New York
is excellent. They are about to launch a Left University in New York!

Wealth and Power - and why it must be dismantled!

The wealthy are running 'democracy' like never before

Is Real Democracy now totally impossible?

Substantial, irrefutable evidence, finally makes it clear, that absolutely NO Democratic mechanisms still exist which can effectively counter the Wealth and Power of the Ruling Capitalist Class! Primarily, this is due to the decisions of the People having to be made without being supplied the necessary wherewithal to make them.

Indeed, as the Media are firmly in the powerful hands of the Enemy Class (or certainly those who can see no alternatives to the status quo), neither the Truth, nor any detailed alternatives are ever being made available to the majority of people.

In fact, the people are assailed on all sides with what only can be called severely biased accounts, along with blatant lies and even deliberately orchestrated incidents, intended to mislead.

And, as always with the Right, the identification of scapegoats abound!

Every distinct minority group, within Society, as long as they are suitably powerless, are targeted as the causers of the current situation. In particular, those migrants escaping from the wars - actually perpetrated by the very same wealthy amd powerful leaders of the Capitalist Powers - are daily identified as the real enemy, and the real solution being said to be their expulsion from the country.

Refugee camp in Calais

Why is all this true NOW?

It is because the long trek by those in power to discredit Socialist oppositions to Capitalism, was assisted greatly by the major recession of 2008, for it allowed a major re-casting of Employment among the Working Class, from Factories and Offices, with Trade Unions and political organisation, and into what we call the "Gig Economy", with more and more self-employed workers eeking-out a far inferior living, and, literally NO working class organisations able to reach them, inform them and organise them.

The pattern is most clearly evident in the USA.

Real wages for the Workers have stopped rising. Jobs have been exported to other countries where wages are much smaller, while immigrants were encouraged for the poorer-paid jobs - while also delivering ideal scapegoats to blame for the increasingly desperate situations facing the resident working class. This is to blame for the increased racial tensions we see, all over the western world. And these tensions are exploited by the wealthy and powerful for their own political gains.

The old Social Democratic parties, having lost their support among the People, by vying with the parties of the Right, upon literally the very same ticket, now have absolutely nothing to offer. The odd exceptions appear to be leftwards-moving Parties, like the British Labour Party, who could indeed win the next General Election. 

Jeremy Corbyn's Labour is one of the few to counter the right-ward trend

But if they do win, will the now prodigious Wealth and Power of the Capitalist Class ever allow then to succeed?

I'm afraid a left-leaning Labour Government alone won't be enough!

The Wealth and Power of the Ruling Capitalist Class has to be terminated.

So, for a Labour Government - YES! But, as a step to a Socialist State run in the real interests of The People.

No Future

Abandoned mall in the USA

No Future Under Capitalism

....for Anyone

The Economic System of Capitalism must have a Market for what it produces. So, primarily, that means people to buy its products.

But, just as important in determining its imperatives, is how it works economically, based upon both the Financial Requirements side and on the Necessary Results side: it must attract the necessary investment to finance both the Means of Production, their regular updating to stay competitive, and have enough overall Profits to pay the required Dividends to its Investors.

But, it must also have Labour to carry out its productive operations: and that must be as cheap as possible.

Now, the main problem since its inception has never changed!

Most of the customers (ultimately) will also be those producing the products. It, therefore, presents the major unavoidable contradiction in Capitalism. For, keeping wages as low as possible, while having enough customers with money to buy the products are, ultimately, diametrically opposed requirements.

Do you require a proof?

For, the whole 300 years of its History, Capitalism has hit this contradiction every few years, when it inevitably suffers a Recession, Depression or even a Slump - and when it does large numbers of workers are sacked, and find new jobs almost impossible to find.

The corner was often turned by taking on the unemployed at much lower wages, so a new balance could be achieved, and these would be at different companies to those from which they had been sacked. Indeed, these "Down-Turns" were frequent enough, for an ever present Pool of the Unemployed to be regularly used in this way!

Now, a purely single area Capitalism, could never grow enough for the new Employing Class and their investors, so they extended their reach to ever new areas, both in their own Country, and then abroad. And, as those exterior countries had been conquered by the so-called Metropolitan Capitalist Hubs, both cheap raw materials and low-wage workers could be easily maintained there.

Abandoned mall in China

This is the Imperialist Development of Capitalism, as very successfully employed by England (and later by the following United Kingdom).

And, interestingly, this was significantly modified by the United States of America, by constantly extending its boundaries to the West and South, disposing of the indigenous populations, as it did so, and distributing of the taken land cheaply to the torrent of poor workers from the East of the USA, and to similar immigrant people from Europe.

But, in addition, both of these nations largely solved their most pressing problem, by resorting to wholesale slavery, to provide "owned labour" both in America in their Southern States, and by Britain in its Caribbean Colonies.

Of course, such "solutions" were always only temporary! For the imperatives of the system, necessarily re-asserted themselves all the time. And, with the end of Imperialism after the Second World War, those means were also curtailed - to be replaced by the installing-and-supporting of corrupt regimes in the ex-colonies to act as well-paid intermediaries.

Indeed, for both the colonial owners and the USA there was also the threat of Socialism, following the Russian and Chinese Revolutions, and the forced "socialisation" of Eastern Europe. For then, America, in particular, embarked upon an almost constant set of wars to prevent any further extensions, and set up militarily-supported Capitalist alternatives instead.

But, the underlying drive of Capitalism always-and-inevitably re-asserts itself, and whatever modifications are instituted, nothing can replace the need for Profit!

Equally the essential contradictions can also never be resolved within Capitalism: for even in War, the usually resorted to "final solution", the soldiers required are once again the ordinary Working People - and to fight they have to be armed!

It was just such "people-in-arms" that carried through the Russian Revolution.

Think about it! 

Why were Nuclear weapons invented?

The promise of war without soldiers

Why are wealthy Americans armed to the teeth, and increasingly live in effectively "gated communities"?

Why must there always be an Enemy, threatening the status quo?

Why has America got by far the mightiest Military in the World?

Who is really threatening America?

It is you!

What the capitalist rulers fear most is the mass of ordinary workers finally rebelling!

So, how about a future without Capitalism?

Abandoned mall in Austin Texas has been transformed into a community college

Re-using dying malls

Disposable?

Dormitories at an abandoned Apple factory in China

There is a persisting and perplexing problem in attempting to explain the historical trajectory of Capitalism over its fairly short life!

It concerns the swift growth of human populations in the towns and cities, which infers that they must have come for a better life than they had endured previously, and also that they must have, initially at least, experienced one, in order to both stay and grow in such numbers. It therefore appears that work in the factories of the employers was indeed delivering an improvement in living conditions, at the time.

Yet, the most evident state of many of those city populations, was that they always seemed to be barely surviving, and in the direst poverty. Why on earth did leave their existences in the countryside to commit themselves to descend into the hell of such cities? And, why did they not return to their countryside jobs, when life in the city hit rock bottom for them?

The trouble was their old jobs were long gone!

The farmers were mechanising, and no longer needed the vast army of labourers of the past. And some farms found sheep far more profitable than arable farming - again requiring less labour. And, in the Highlands the villages were being cleared to deliver ever more "pastures and playgrounds-for-the-rich". There were no jobs, and also no homes there any more.

It is, therefore, less of a contradiction, when the major driving forces are exposed. But, nevertheless, for along time there seemed to be a shining light which still appeared to deliver the promise of a better life.

In what later became the USA, such situations were rarely as bad: indeed, such workers, who generally were immigrants, escaping from desperate conditions in Europe, entertained an ever rising standard of living, pretty well constantly for over 150 years! What was going on?

Workers in the USA were afforded a better quality of life

The new economic system did both promise a better life, but simultaneously put every single worker onto the unavoidable task of enriching their employers. And, these are contradictory objectives!

Whilever things were going well for the employer, the life of the worker also was better. But any setbacks for the employer always changed things dramatically for the workers. The employer would sack workers, and maybe employ others at lower wages, gradually forcing down the quality of life of all those employed. And, if the company failed and couldn't sell what it made, it would be shut down, throwing all the workers out without any means of subsistence.

Indeed, such failures were common, so there was ever the threat of unemployment to aid employers in keeping wages as low as possible. 

Workers at Apple factory which has now been shut down

In addition, this system of Capitalism was inherently unstable, and every few years had Depressions when many were thrown out of work, and Booms when things picked up again - but never in exactly the same forms.

Many firms vanished in the slumps, and new ones were created in the booms, but these ups and downs acted most strongly against workers, so even within a steady situation there would always be unemployed workers, who by their presence as such, were enabling the effective control of those still employed. Any trouble from a worker and he or she could be replaced by one of the unemployed!

Now, though conditions vary at an amazing rate, the contradictory state of the Capitalist Economic System has remained essentially the same - it has accelerated and globalised if anything.

Though workers organised into Trade Unions and even developed their own political parties, these contradictions were never removed, and every change benefiting the ruling Capitalists would be energetically pursued until it too ran out of steam.

Occasionally, there would be a Revolution which dispossessed the Capitalist class, but as the dominant Capitalist system became truly global, it could both effectively and severely limit those "socialist" countries from any real success, and by war, boycotts and eventual assimilation, even those attempts were reversed.

Clearly, unless and until the working classes, on a World scale implement many successful revolutions, they will remain both dispossessed and disposable to their capitalist enemies, ever more powerfully in charge!

Empty dormitories at former Apple factory

Politics, Unions and Worker Coops

International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) address a crowded hall at Madison Square Garden, 1958.

Transforming Society Root and Branch

Listening today to a Democracy at Work talk on the Internet by Professor Richard Wolff, concerning Trades Unions and Worker Coops, it was crystal clear to me that his direct comparison of the struggles of today with those in the 1930s in the USA, involving the Alliance of the Trades Unions with the Socialist and Communist political parties, was NOT an appropriate comparison, and the new suggested alliance, alone, would never be a sufficient policy now!

We must not forget what the Labour Threat presented to Franklyn D. Rooseveldt was in the 1930s...

For it was,

"Give us Justice now, or we will carry out a Revolution!"

And, that was no idle threat! And, even then, the Unions alone would never have come up with it. Indeed, it had to come from the political parties, who had also been vital in building those Unions.

This may not be currently popular with today's left, but, the Unions, without such a political leadership, could never dispense with Capitalism. And, like it or not, neither could a movement for Worker Cooperatives! They are too limited in both their purposes and their power, to naturally address what is required to finish and replace Capitalism permanently.

Purely Union v. Capitalist, or even Worker Coop v. Capitalist, struggles alone would always end in victory for the Capitalists! There would have to be society-wide unrest AND active Revolutionary Parties - addressing the necessary questions, to inform, motivate and educate the masses, against the massive tide of misinformation and lies of the media-dominating Capitalist Class, so that, instead, the vast preponderance of the whole People-in-Revolt could smash the status quo, for a Future they could both see and deserve. And, that crucially necessary component is clearly, currently, totally absent!

Indeed, it is also absent within the Unions and the Worker Co-ops, in the form of politically-equipped leaders, who understand the political necessities - not only for Society at Large, but also in formulating the appropriate policies necessary - even those concerned with the restricted objectives of their own organisations.

For example:-

1. How do Coops relate to each other?

2. How do they relate to the Local Political Democracy - within which they exist?

3. How are leaders and external representatives elected, mandated and removed?

4. How, exactly, are the absolutely-necessary society-wide objectives to be arrived at, and then implemented?

5. What about Social Services, Schools, Hospitals? Universities, infrastructures and nation-wide Transport that all need to be organised and controlled?

I could go on, but clearly, even within these essential organisations, there also has to be an awareness of a much wider political context, not only for removing Capitalism, but also for establishing, running and maintaining a Socialism-for-and-by-the-People!

Political Parties of-and-for the People, with clear objectives, and indeed worked-out policies, beyond Capitalism, are absolutely essential. Clearly, neither the Republican nor the Democratic parties in the USA could ever deliver what is required in this regard: for they are both in-hock up to their greedy necks, via large financial contributions from the Billionaire class. 

Communist Party, USA

And, even the tattered remnants of the old socialist and communist parties are too compromised, in successfully ensuring their past survival, for them to ever be capable of mounting a credible and revolutionary assault to win the forces necessary from the mass of the People.

Currently, the absolutely essential revolutionary political force is still wholly absent, and the experiences of Greece, and even the Arab Spring, demonstrate clearly the inevitable outcomes, when such appropriately-equipped organisations are not in place.

Is not Revolution the only solution?

Guns in America: what are they really for?

Why is America in love with guns?

Why can't Gun Control Laws be passed in the US Congress? 

It's not because of the lauded Second Amendment. For, that was put in over two centuries ago, when the indigenous Americans still had to be removed and their land stolen, and wars of continued existence against the ex-owners, Britain, were still very much a possibility.

No, the current reason isn't so much to do with that revolution as it is to do with who benefits from the current economic set up-in the USA, who also funds the politicians, and the NRA, and ultimately who wants to be able to defend themselves against what they fear most?

It is the Rich: and who they fear most are The People! 

The defence of private property is big business - which it turn, also needs defending. They have tried every other possible means of staying in the driving seat, and keeping their wealth, but the 2008 crash showed that all their methods could not keep them and their world safe forever.

The real threat voiced by the workers in the Major Depression of the 1930's, which scared both Rooseveldt and the wealthy elites to death, and led to the New Deal, could happen again, but this time could actually lead to Revolution!

How do you think these people consider the recent massacre in Nevada? One man suitably armed, and in the right place, can deal with almost 600 people at once, particularly if they are in the open streets demonstrating or marching upon their safe Latifundia.

Instant death could be rained down upon them as in Las Vegas. And also, they don't want to be caught un-armed when alone.

Shoot first and ask questions later, seems to be the best bet! If mass killers are despatched routinely in this way, it will surely disuade most others from "trying-it-on" to unseat the wealthy.

Is Capitalism Fading?

The latest update from Prof. Wolff

First Americans

The First Peopling of America

In how many waves, and when and how did they come?

Things are changing fast in the studies of Early Man, and many once-firm conclusions are being dismantled by new archaeological evidence.

A very interesting body of different discoveries from all over the whole of North and South America, are questioning the generally-believed single first immigration from Siberia, only 40 thousand years ago, which now looks as though it may have been at least three incursions, including much earlier ones by very different routes.

Quite apart from the above archaeology, there has always been seeming contradictions in the cultures of various tribes and civilisations that have left their proof in both the constructions still standing, and the peoples still existing to this day.

It has always seemed to me that the most primitive economic system that has existed until recently on the plains of the Mid West, in what is now the USA, the hunter/gatherers, contrasts markedly with the much more advanced peoples very much further south, in Central and South America.

For, the former were much closer to the supposed original point of entry - across the now Baring Strait, presumably when it had been turned into a land-bridge, with the decline in sea-level, caused by the build-up on land of the fast-advancing, vast glaciers of the Ice Age.

And, to raise even more questions, remains found in Brazil of an ancient woman or girl, were validly dated as the oldest ever found in the Americas, and she looked nothing like either the Plains people up north, or even the supposed Siberians or Mongolians who were considered to be the ancestors of all first Americans.Indeed, she looked more like the first peoples of Australia.

Then, even more recently found, some very old remains were revealed to have features more like modern Europeans. And, some were reconstructed to look more like the Ainu from northern Japan.

Finally a well-preserved, but very ancient body was found, and investigations proved that his entire diet had been of fish, which inferred a possible close-to-the-sea route of access, while along the south coast of Alaska animal remains proved conclusively that they must have lived upon land, next to, but not covered by the Ice Sheet that was dominating the rest of the Land.

And, of course, the ancient land revealed by the locking up of water in the Ice Sheet, will by now be inaccessible, due to the demise of that Ice Age, and the returning of the water to underneath the Pacific Ocean, so cannot be investigated for necessary evidence.

Now, why would anyone brave the rigors of the ancient far north to reach America?

The best argument seems to be the herds of Caribou, which occur, today, not only in Alaska and Canada, but across Eurasia from Scandinavia to Siberia.

And, Man soon learned to follow them in their essential vast migrations to new pastures. With a way of getting to such resources in America Humans could have followed them, using them for food, clothing and even transportation, as they do today.

Some time ago I put up a paper entitled "Did the Eskimos Discover America", reasoning that they could have conquered living in the Arctic of Eurasia, and merely followed the edge of the ice, during the Ice Age, occasionally on their sea-skin boats, to America.

And, this contribution has proved very popular. So, though that is clearly not the full story, it had merit.

From what I can make out from the excellent NOVA Documentary (on YouTube), there now seem to be several waves of early immigrants at very different times, stretching back much further than the now replaced single incursion.

Defeat the Liars!

Populists? Liars and Capitalists

As we move into the 10th miserable year of this global slump, we must reject the suffering imposed upon ordinary working people, and the LIES of those who caused it, those who now expect US to pay for their greed, while they continue to extend the gap between their increasing Wealth and our ever-growing Poverty.

We didn't spend centuries fighting for and winning adequate Social Provision across the State for all the services that it should provide for its People, only to see them now vastly reduced, and even successively dismantled into yet another Privatisation  while the perpetrators, themselves, talk out of the other side of their lying mouths about concern and increased provision plans.

Don't believe a single word!

THEY LIE!

 They always DO!

Surely the time is long overdue to terminate their greedy rule!

We CAN do better than Capitalism!

We want Socialism, and we need it NOW!

Boris Johnson bus load of lies

Out with the Tories for ever!

Stuff the Populists who pretend to be on our side

while continuing to amass their own wealth

They are liars too!

and even further to the Right than the Tories!

How do you think Hitler and Mussolini started?

Fight this lurch to the right

Start your protests NOW

On all possible fronts

Organise Meetings & Actions around all Injustices

Show them what we can do

After all

WE ARE LEGION!

Trump's real plans

Richard Wolff's analysis of Trump's decisions as president-elect

amongst other things!

TRUMP OUT!

Protesting Trump's election as US President

TRUMP IS A GREEDY CAPITALIST

WHAT AMERICA NEEDS IS SOCIALISM

For, now you must know

These things NEVER reflect the needs and wants of working people. Even if Clinton had got in it would be only marginally better for most Americans. The sad oscillation between the mega-rich Republicans and mega-rich Democrats has to be finally terminated - forever.

Bernie Sanders was only a pale hint of the necessary 

Shape of Things to Come

The next step gets steeper every single day, and we must climb it soon before it precipitates the inevitable global war....

...as happened last time

Richard Wolff on Trump's election: