Socialist Standard
Front page image.
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1
Contents
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2
Editorial
Brown’s
no different.
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3
Pathfinders
Dawkins more wrong than Gould?
Page
4
Letters.
Contact
Details
Page
5
Religion
or Capitalism:
which is the root of evil?
Atheists
have been coming out of the closet in recent years. But will these
freethinkers also embrace the “heresy” of criticizing capitalism?
Page
6
Continued
from above page
Page
7
Cooking the
Books 1
That
was
then.
Page
8
I
Believe
It
appears there has been a recent proliferation of books published on the
subject of defending or promoting atheism or giving ..what isall the
fuss about ?
Page 9
Materialism versus spiritism
The
scientific method versus superstitions.
Page
10
The
postal workers strike
A
postal worker reflects on the recent series of strikes.
Page 11
Capitalism
is not superior
to socialism
The
Socialist Party speaker’s contribution to a recent debate at University
College Dublin on the motion “That Capitalism is Superior to Socialism
in the Modern World”.
Page 12
Another
leader falls
The
demise of Ming Campbell.
Page 13
Cooking the
Books 2
Co-opting
the Co-op.
Page
14
Reviews
Who
Was
Jesus?; Against All
Gods; God Is Not Great..
Page
15
Reviews
.. and
more
Page
16
Meetings
Page 17
Obituary
Sean Doherty.
50 Years Ago
Has Bevan Sold the Pass?
Principles
Page
18
Greasy
Pole
It’s A Date, Then? Or Not?
Page
19
Voice
from the
Back
Free
Lunch
Page 20
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Brown’s no different
One of Gordon Brown's first actions as Labour Prime Minister was to
appoint as trade minister Digby Jones (former head of the CBI and trade
unionists' bête noir). He followed that up with appointments for
Alan Sugar (of TV's The Apprentice) and private equity chief Damon
Buffini – who presumably doesn't need the cash – to something called a
Business Leaders Council.
On policy he has promised a raft of meaningless populist measures,
including new powers to stop shops selling alcohol to kids (yeah,
that'll work), and more power to hospital matrons to get wards cleaned.
Ten thousand laptops have been promised to help police cut down on
increasing paperwork (presumably related to all the shops being
prosecuted for selling alcohol to kids).
He also cornered the UKIP/BNP vote, making a speech about creating
“British jobs for British workers" (which might explain the Digby Jones
appointment ?), and still found time in his busy schedule to spend two
hours in Downing Street with a previous resident, one Mrs Thatcher. He
has of course been even more charitable to the current Tory leader,
David Cameron, recently giving home to most of his policies.
So is there anyone left who really thinks that the Labour Party is
different from the Tory Party ?
The Labour Party was not invented by the capitalist class. But it might
as well have been. It offered a superficially attractive gentle path to
social change, but has in reality acted for 100 years as a sop to the
discontent of its core support in the majority (working) class.
When in opposition it used the language of democracy and freedom,
fairness and equality. But its actions when in government throughout
the 20th century speak far far louder. Anti-war campaigners gave it
their support then watched aggrieved as Labour purchased expensive
missile systems, or frog-marched millions into countless wars around
the globe. Trade unionists financed it, then stood by as Labour
introduced or extended anti-trade union legislation.
More recently, Labour hasn't really needed to say much at all. No
grandiose claims as to how they would nationalise the “commanding
heights” of the economy or solve the housing crisis. No taxing the rich
“until the pips squeak” For the last 25 years it has been considered
enough to simply not be Thatcher, Major, Howard, Cameron... They didn’t
put it on their manifestos and election posters but the inspiring
message to voters has been "Well we might be bad, but the other lot are
worse".
The convenient explanation is to blame it all on “that bloody man”
(Tony Blair) for supposedly hijacking the party. The reality however is
that the Labour Party, its means and ends, have long since become
discredited. Only the rhetoric has changed in the last 20 years. The
Labour Party simply never were socialist: the difference now is that
they don't have to pretend.
Blair came to power on the basis of not being a Tory; he was allowed to
cling onto power for ten years by a Party desperate for an orderly
succession to let the next great hope take charge.
And so we come to Gordon Brown, minister's son, radical student and Red
Clydeside historian. Will he be any different? Of course he won’t. Do
you want to bet?
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Contents page
Introducing
The Socialist Party
The Socialist Party is like no other political
party in Britain. It is made up of people who
have joined together because we want to
get rid of the profit system and establish
real socialism.
Our aim is to persuade
others to become socialist and act for
themselves, organising democratically
and without leaders, to bring about the
kind of society that we are advocating
in this journal.
We are solely concerned
with building a movement of socialists for
socialism. We are not a reformist party
with a programme of policies to patch up
capitalism.
We use every possible opportunity to make
new socialists. We publish pamphlets
and books, as well as CDs, DVDs and
various other informative material.
We
also give talks and take part in debates;
attend rallies, meetings and demos; run
educational conferences; host internet
discussion forums, make films presenting
our ideas, and contest elections when
practical.
Socialist literature is available in
Arabic, Bengali, Dutch, Esperanto, French,
German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish
and Turkish as well as English.
The more of you who join the Socialist
Party the more we will be able to get our
ideas across, the more experiences we
will be able to draw on and greater will be
the new ideas for building the movement
which you will be able to bring us.
The Socialist Party is an organisation of
equals. There is no leader and there are
no followers.
So, if you are going to join
we want you to be sure that you agree
fully with what we stand for and that we
are satisfied that you understand the case
for socialism.
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