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happenings in 1958 |
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The falling off of production and decline of sales have hit
privately owned textiles just as hard as the State-owned railways and
mines, and the textile industry presents us with a harsh example of
another illusion that ran parallel with the nationalisation campaign
and was held by the same people. This was the illusion, prominent after
World War II, that things were not going to be as they had been in the
depressed 'thirties. No more would there be unemployment and the dole
queue; for those "in the know" had learned how to plan for full
employment.
( . . .)
Unemployment for all industries is now on the way to 600,000, a figure
that does not take account of the many who have lost their jobs but do
not register as unemployed, and though the government professes to be
sure that things will get better "in the Spring" they have yet to
explain the whys and wherefores of what has already happened. What has
happened to their supposed control of the employment situation and
their readiness to step in at short notice to head off depression?
The Labour Party and the Tory Party, the latter with its belief in
managing "full employment" and the former believing as well in
nationalisation, can look back at 1958 as a year in which their
theories were demonstrated to be unsound and useless to the workers.
The S.P.G.B. alone can justifiably claim that it predicted both
failures.
(from editorial, Socialist Standard, January 1959)
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Declaration
of Principles
This
declaration is the basis of our organisation and, because
it is
also an important
historical document dating from the
formation
of the party
in 1904, its original language has been retained.
Object
The establishment of a system of
society based upon the
common ownership and democratic control of the
means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in
the interest of the whole community.
Declaration of Principles
the socialist Party of Great Britain
holds,
1.
That society as at
present constituted is based upon the ownership of the means of living
(i.e., land, factories, railways,
etc.) by the capitalist or master class, and the consequent enslavement
of the working class, by whose labour alone wealth is produced.
2.
That in society,
therefore, there is an antagonism of interests, manifesting itself as a
class struggle between those who possess but do not produce and those
who produce but do not possess.
3.
That this antagonism
can be abolished only by the emancipation of the working class from the
domination of the master class, by the conversion into the common
property of society of the means of production and distribution, and
their democratic control by the whole people.
4.
That as in the order
of social evolution the working class is the last class to achieve its
freedom, the emancipation of the working class will involve the
emancipation of all mankind, without distinction of race or sex.
5.
That this
emancipation must be the work of the working class itself.
6.
That as the machinery
of government, including the armed forces of the nation, exists only to
conserve the monopoly by the capitalist class of the wealth taken from
the workers, the working class must organize consciously and
politically for the conquest of the powers of government, national and
local, in order that
this machinery, including these forces, may be converted from an
instrument of oppression into the agent of emancipation and the
overthrow of privilege, aristocratic and plutocratic.
7.
That as all political
parties are but the expression of class interests, and as the interest
of the working class is diametrically opposed to the interests of all
sections of the master class, the party seeking working class
emancipation must be hostile to every other party.
8.
The Socialist Party of
Great Britain, therefore, enters the field of political action
determined to wage war against all other political parties, whether
alleged labour or avowedly capitalist, and calls upon the members of
the working class of this country to muster under its banner to the end
that a speedy termination may be wrought to the system which deprives
them of the fruits of their labour, and that poverty may give place to
comfort, privilege to equality, and slavery to freedom. |
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NEW DVD
Poles Apart?
Capitalism or
Socialism as the planet heats up
with contributions from Glenn
Morris,
Arctic Voice,
and Brian Gardner, The
Socialist
Party.
Recorded digitally at
Conway Hall,
London, 2008.
£5.00
per copy + £1.25 P & P. Send to the Audio-Visual
Department,
c/o Head Office and allow up to 21 days for dispatch.
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Socialist Standard
Bound volumes (2005-2007) for £25 plus postage, each, order
from
HO,
cheques payable to
“The Socialist
Party of Great Britain”
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Capitalism?
Kids'
Stuff |
'Capitalism and Other Kids' Stuff',is a new DVD from the Socialist
Party which asks us to take fresh look at th world we live in
and to question some of the most basic assumptions about live
in capitalism..
'All I can say is:Oh my god I just can't believe how good this is'
BILL HUSTON,Binghampton, Indymedia,New York.
'I have been teaching for 30 years and I find this to be one of the
best short films I have ever used'
DOUG BROWN,Professor of Economics North Arizona University.
£5.50(incl.p&p) from the Socialist Party, 52 Clapham
High St.London SW4 7UN
Cheques made payable to 'The Socialist Party of Great Britain' |
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