Month: January 2022
No To Nationalism 1/3
The same the world over Nationalism is anathema to the World Socialist Movement (WSM). Workers have no country. We have more in common with people like ourselves in other countries than with the privileged owning-class of the country where we happen to be born in and live and work. The worldwide working class has a common…
The WSM and God-Belief
On religious belief, the World Socialist Movement takes up a position derived from Marx that religion is an expression of human alienation, of the fact that humans are not in control of their destiny but are the playthings of uncontrollable, impersonal economic and social forces and resort to religion to console themselves and to try to…
WHAT GOOD HAS RELIGION DONE FOR SOCIETY
All religious belief symbolises the immaturity of humanity by placing all human activity on a mythical altar where faith overrules logic and reasoning. In other words, explaining and refuting religion isn’t just a philosophical exercise; its a practical necessity. The fundamental idea of religion is a belief in the persistence of life after death. Originally, and…
The Religious Fix
“The fear of hell is a hangman’s whip to keep the wretch in order.” Robert Burns Religions are not deserving of respect just because they are religions and they must be subject to the same scrutiny as any other belief and cannot hide behind the notion that they are personal beliefs. The socialist analysis of religion derives from our…
Avoiding Bureaucracy, Managerialism and Technocracy
The basis of any society is the way its members reorganised for the production of wealth. Where a section only of society controls the means of production then we can speak of a class society. The class that controls the means of production can be said to constitute a stable ruling and privileged class when…
Capitalism Co-opts Co-ops
A sign of insanity they say is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results so why is it that many progressives ignore the informed opinion from over 150 years ago of the Chartist leader, Ernest Jones who back then observed: “I contend that co-operation as now developed, must result in failure to…
UBI: Redistributing Poverty
Many understand that one of the damaging effects upon the incomes of working people are frequently schemes to alleviate the economic pain felt by the poor and lower-paid workers. If Universal Basic Income is such a good idea, why has nobody implemented it before now? Universal (or Unconditional) Basic Income is an idea whose adherents…
WSM Principles 3/3
We state below some of the principles on which, from our point of view, a genuine socialist party must be based and we hope a useful contribution to discussions. We have divided the article into four parts: A SocialismB The Path to SocialismC Futility of ReformismD A Model of Socialist Society A. Socialism 1) A socialist party must first be clear…
WSM Principles 2/3
In elections people talk incessantly about “The System”, “The System has failed”, “The System must be changed”, “Vote for us, because we are going to end The System”. What system, exactly? Democracy under capitalism is reduced to people voting for competing groups of professional politicians, to giving the thumbs-up or the thumbs-down to the governing or opposition party (or parties)….
WSM Principles 1/3
A Principled Stand “The word Revolution, which we Socialists are so often forced to use, has a terrible sound in most people’s ears, even when we have explained to them that it does not necessarily mean a change accompanied by riot and all kinds of violence, and cannot mean a change made mechanically and in…