Author: alanjjohnstone
Against All Nationalism
What happens to workers anywhere is the business of socialists everywhere. Peace is always better than war because wars are never fought in the interests of ordinary people. And because in wars it is always ordinary people who suffer. So, irrespective of the issues involved or the terms agreed, socialists, can only welcome the ending of…
No War Between Peoples, No Peace Between Classes
The current conflict between Russia which has invaded Ukraine purportedly to protect two breakaway Russian-speaking regions requires an answer and an analysis. Most people are opposed to war. War is so terrible in its practice that even politicians, at least, must pretend to be against war. But we have seen that wars do not result from…
WSM Proposal 3/3
The WSM and Social Democracy The simplest definition of democracy is that it is decision-making by the whole people involving procedures such as free and open debate, full disclosure of information, one person-one vote, and the accountability of public officials and elected representatives. Such a decision-making system can be regarded as desirable because one key…
WSM Proposal 2/3
WSM and Socialist Planning When describing the new society we are working toward the World Socialist Movement is frequently asked the question of “How will it work?”. The actual question of how far it will be possible to localise production and decision-making will remain a matter for debate both before and after the accomplishment of the socialist revolution. When we…
WSM Proposal 1/3
The World Socialist Movement is not proposing the abolition of money alone, nor a return to barter. In fact, the abolition of money alone, would solve no problems and undoubtedly create many difficulties. But what it does propose is that the whole system of money and exchange, buying and selling, profit-making and wage-working be entirely abolished and that…
Simpler is Better 3/3
We, in the World Socialist Movement, hold that the social system needs to be changed fundamentally and we advocate the abolition of social classes through production based solely on meeting people’s needs, democratically administered. This goes much deeper than a mere change in government, but it also assumes a widespread understanding of what needs to be…
Simpler is Better 2/3
Utopian Socialism The World Socialist Movement has to deal in prediction, but only in broad terms. Socialism is a vision of the future, although its advocates are actively at work in the present. Socialists have typically avoided the tactic of the utopian blueprint. One reason for this was that no matter what your Utopian vision is, you…
Simpler is Better 1/3
The World Socialist Movement desires to abolish economics. No exchange hence no economy. Socialism, being based on the common ownership of the means of production by all members of society, is not an exchange economy. Production would no longer be carried on for sale with a view to profit as under capitalism. In fact, production would not be carried on…
Being Human 3/3
“The war of each against all is not the law of nature. Mutual aid is as much a law of nature as mutual struggle” – Kropotkin, Mutual Aid The World Socialist Movement are for the abolition of private property and the implementation of one of the oldest customs and traditions humanity has developed for its…
Being Human 2/3
“A rat race is for rats. We’re not rats. We’re human beings.” Jimmy Reid, Scottish trade unionist Socialism is almost globally misunderstood and misrepresented. Socialism will be a basic structural change to society, and many of the things that most people take for granted, as “just the way things have to be”, can and must be…