What should a socialist do?

We live in a capitalist world. To aspire to or campaign for an isolated socialist model is unrealistic. No successful socialist state has yet to be experienced. But this knowledge does not mean that one has to like this truth. I want citizens to have ownership of crucial infrastructure and services; to enjoy equal opportunities for good housing, healthcare and education; to live free from discrimination in a fair society; and to share in the fruits of work. I am a socialist.

The essence of capitalism as an economic theory is that wealth creation must lead to more to go around. Over centuries as economies have grown, ever fewer people, it is true, are in absolute poverty but the reality is that the “going around” fails.  The economies of the most advanced nations are deeply unfair and unequal. Those who have the capital get more. Those who are employed to grow it do not. The desire for perpetual growth of capital leads to the retention of what should “go around” for those who have it to reinvest or, as dividend, to reward the brilliance of their decisions to enrich themselves. But it is no fault or disgrace not to be wealthy – merely the fall of the dice. For most of history, over 90% of populations everywhere have lacked any assets whatsoever, whilst those who have them pass them on at their own discretion.

There is surely a legitimate case for those of a socialist mindset not to attempt the replacement of capitalism but to mollify it; to demand the sharing around. In the capitalist world, “tax” is a dirty word. It suggests to those who like keeping all they acquire sharing some of their gains with those who either worked to create them or missed out on opportunities in life. Yet even for the Right the State has roles to perform, which they accept as requiring funding via the tax system. Defence and the justice system are commonly accepted uses for tax revenues, for example. Capitalists need educated workers to help grow their wealth, good transport, water supply and sewage systems. Socialists want that wealth more fairly distributed. So the key function of political discourse must be deciding the extent of the roles the State and thus the level of taxation required. Discourse, by its very nature, must allow for other ideas and beliefs. This discourse must begin with acceptance that taxation is an essential, ethical part of a democracy they should be proud to contribute rather than a dirty word.

Even if one’s vote counts for nothing, because of where one lives or because politics fails us, it is still possible and important that the discourse occurs, if only as a check on the anti-tax, anti-State brigade. We must recognise that the less the State is funded, not only the fewer public services will be afforded but also the more the State itself can be rejected or undervalued, opening the way for the Trumps, Le Pens and Goves. For those who care more for the needs of those in society who have not been blessed with capital, the use of tax to fund public assets and services is essential. This is what makes socialists continue to exist and to try to influence politics, but not, generally, to bring capitalism down. Anyway, why should anyone with socialist values deny these simply because they are in a minority? One day we may not be.

Christmas Cheer for Labour?

The last 100 years were recently described as the transit from Empire, to Democracy then Kleptocracy, as an increasing share of the world’s assets are sucked into the maw of a tiny minority of hugely wealthy individuals. Yes, individuals, for what are corporations but vehicles for multiples of individuals to acquire yet more that they cannot usefully use, without working for it?

No wonder then, if in such a world, large numbers who see this inequity happening around them are dissatisfied with those they have voted for merely perpetuating the status quo, albeit with minor tweaks of differentiation between parties. No wonder that such “indignados” [as they are known in Spain] respond when they hear a siren voice. This may be a voice from Left-field, as has occurred in Greece [Syriza] and Spain [Podemos], USA [Sanders] and here in UK, with Corbyn; or it may unfortunately and more commonly these days come from the Right: Farage, Trump, Le Pen, Wilders etc.

Political sirens must offer a braver new world, with charisma, articulacy and passion if they are to convince not merely their tribal followers but a substantial proportion of the voting public too. Herein lies Corbyn’s problem. He offers a socialist alternative model, true, with honesty and sincerity, which has brought to his banner thousands who had long felt disowned by politics and thousands more who were hearing the possibility for the first time of a politics in tune with their values. But his message stops there. Beyond the converts lie the public, deaf to his way. Sad as it makes me to say it, socialism is a minority sport, even within the Labour Party, at least at present.

Unless he can create a credible vision of a country people in their millions want, we will not go much further with Corbyn. To date, with open goals available for social ownership of rail, opposition to Brexit, mass council house building, State care and more, his Labour Party has devoted itself to infighting and invisibility.

Brexit has done it. Trump has done it. The people wanted them, despite their being palpably flawed. Labour, the people’s party, is no longer seen by the people as in tune with what they need. We who care about the values only it espouses, will patiently have to ride out a period of survival whilst we try to look for the role, the leadership, the political philosophy and policies which may bring us one day back to the fore. Trump, Farage and the other demagogues of hate will be found out, surely, by events which it will be painful to witness and experience.

Sorry. Happy Christmas

Capitalism and Socialism: not such strange bedfellows

Atop the parapets of the Great Western Bridge in Glasgow are lanterns supported by cast iron figures of heroic workers, representing the women and men who made the wealth which made the city. Well-deserved, you may think, but what patronising cheek the architect of the Great Western Bridge had for the reality was and is again that those who toil are neglected, underpaid and ignored.

Surely nowhere in the world is there a finer monument to Victorian enterprise than Glasgow. Even today, when Thatcherism and new technologies have swept away the workplaces of thousands and the maritime heritage has been airbrushed from the sight of the visitor, throughout the city there remain monuments to the civic and business leaders of the Industrial revolution, in the form of fine streets, public buildings and even tombs. Indeed the latter, gathered into the huge Necropolis beside the lovely cathedral, perhaps sum up capitalism to perfection: ostentatious self-esteem in competition.

However, so effective has been the cleansing of the city of the real story of its wealth that one could stop and just admire it as the perfect product of capital. But who really made the ships, the steam engines, the buildings? It was not those buried in the Necropolis, surely, but those anonymously dumped in paupers' graves. The former certainly ordained that these things should be created but they surely did not wield the tools nor break sweat to implement them. No, this was the role of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children [yes, children] underpaid, living in overcrowded squalor in rotting tenements. The evidence for this description is maintained in records and displays at the Peoples Palace and elsewhere, though not so much is extant, for most has been removed. Is it any wonder that, living cheek-by-jowl with their employers' excesses, the workers should have been driven to a different political allegiance - to solidarity, mass action, to objection to the vast inequality of the great city, to socialism? Yet, then, as now, power lay not with the majority but with the wealth. Today, we once again have a growing economy in which inequality is demanded by a few at the expense of the rest. Glasgow of 150 years ago is with us once more and it is again socialism's time, driven by capitalism's divisive greed.