Where to buy the Socialist Standard (1971)

From the November 1971 issue of the Socialist Standard

ABERDEEN: J. G. Bisset’s, 99 High St.. Old Aberdeen (also pamphlets sold). Bisset’s, 12-14 Upper Kirkgate. Bisset’s, College of Education, Hilton Place. Watt & Grant's, 247 Union Street. College Bookshop, 191 Holbom Street. M. Vallance, Room 21, Johnston Hall, College Bounds. Old Aberdeen. (Also pamphlets sold). 

BELFAST: The Paperback-Shop, Gresham Street.

BIRMINGHAM: Reference Library, every weekday, evenings only. The Ramp, New Street Station, every Saturday.

BRIGHTON: The News-stand, London Road Unicorn Bookshop, Gloucester Road. 

DUNDEE: James Finnie, 10 Kinnaird Street. 

EDINBURGH: David Balfour, West Nicholson St. Better Books, Forest Road. Moondan, 18 Stephen St., Stockbridge Cross, Westport Row. Cross Market. Every Saturday 11 a.m. -5 p.m. in Princes St., at the East End beside the Duke of Wellington Statue, at the West End in front of Binns, and halfway along Princes St. at the Mound. At the Mound every Sunday. 

GLASGOW: Bryson’s, Byres Road, W.l. Clyde Book Shop, High Street. Macdonalds, Maryhill Road at Cromwell Street.

HULL: Robinsons, 80 Cottingham Road. Robinsons, Newstall University Union. Browns Bookshop University.

LEHAM-BY-FORFAR: Roger Wilkie, 8 Blairs Road.

LIVERPOOL: Wilson’s Bookshop, Church Alley, off Church Street, Liverpool. Bob's Newsbox, Brown-low Hill, Liverpool 3. 

LONDON: News-stand outside Midland Bank, High Holbom, WC1. The Compendium, 240 Camden High Street. NW1. News Stores, 10 Coptic Street, WC1 (near British Museum). Collet’s, Charing Cross Road, WC2. Housman’s, 5 Caledonian Road, Nl. News-stand, Notting Hill Gate Tube Station (near Burtons). Until II pm SPGB, 52 Clapham High Street. SW4 (all literature). And at Hyde Park every Sunday. 

MANCHESTER: Percival, Oxford Road; also Percival’s at St. Peter's Square and Wilmslow Road, Didsbury

SWANSEA: Dylan’s Bookshop, 75 High St. (near High St. Station). Tel. 59664. Central Library 10.30-12.00.

WOOLWICH: W. Tyler, 30 Woolwich High Street. SE18.

Books Received (1971)

From the November 1971 issue of the Socialist Standard

• For Marx. L. Althusser. Allen Lane.
• The Rise of Fascism. F. L. Carsten. Methuen. 80p.
• Marx in His Own Words. Ernst Fischer. Allen Lane. £1.50.
• New Fabian Essays. Dent. £1.75.
• Mao Papers. Edited by Jerome Ch’en. OUP. £2.75.
• Europe versus America. E. Mandel. NLB. £2.00.
• Sexuality and Class Struggle. Reimut Reiche. NLB. £2.00.
• Social Consequences of Conviction. J. P. Martin and D. Webster. Heinemann Educational. £4.50.
• Suspended Sentence. Marc Ansel. Heinemann Educational. £1.50.
• The Enthusiasts. L. Thompson. Gollancz. £3.00.
• Ted Heath: A Latterday Charlemagne. Donald Johnson. Johnson Publications. 50p.

Don't be fooled by words (1971)

From the November 1971 issue of the Socialist Standard

“All I want to see, is my country free, happiness peace and prosperity." A theme, with variations, that has headed the top ten of the political hit parade with unceasing regularity during the last century.

The chorus master on this occasion is Joe Cahill who has been described as “the militant leader of the Belfast wing of the provisional IRA" after his release from detention in Dublin. At this point we will stop the satire; the part played over the decades by political “leaders" with their message of national independence has proved too tragic and disastrous to joke about.

The working class of Ireland, that is to say of Eire and Northern Ireland, as indeed workers wherever they may reside, should think seriously about such phrases as “Freedom", “My country", “Prosperity" and “Peace". Let’s see what they really mean.

Freedom: In capitalist society means the right of the vast majority to be propertyless wage workers producing wealth to be sold on a market with a view to profit.

My country : The countries of the world are owned by a privileged minority. The working class has problems and interests that are produced by capitalism and not by the existence of national barriers. 

Prosperity: All workers are poor, some are destitute. A prosperous working class is a contradiction in terms. Capitalism is as incapable of producing a working class that is prosperous as it is of producing a government that is popular.

Peace: Even if the shooting stopped the class war would remain, that is the struggle which goes on all the time over the ownership of the wealth of society, whether it be in a so called “United" Ireland, the “United" States, the “United" Kingdom, the “United” Arab Republic. Russia, Africa, in fact wherever capitalism is the predominating form of society.

S. L. L.

50 Years Ago: Futile Appeals For Disarmament (1971)

The 50 Years Ago column from the November 1971 issue of the Socialist Standard

A demonstration was held on Thursday October 13th at the Central Hall, to further the agitation for disarmament. It should be obvious that the capitalist governments of the world arm against each other because they must, war being the logical and necessary outcome of their economic rivalry. While, therefore, the prospect of economising, by mutual agreement to limit expenditure, is attractive to the employing class who have to bear the burden, to appeal to a national group of capitalists to give up their only defence against their like-minded predatory neighbours and against the workers from whose robbery the privileged position of the capitalist class arises, is to ask them to commit suicide, and will naturally be given the amount of consideration such a proposal would deserve. Is it to be expected that our capitalist rulers, armed to the teeth to defend their private property, will scrap their armaments and voluntarily sacrifice their hold on the world's wealth merely.in response from muddle-headed reformers?

* * *

The Bishop of London distinguished for his Christianly ferocious thirst for blood in the late war, asked God's blessing on the Washington Conference meaning no doubt that he hopes the Empire would find favour in the sight of the Lord to get a thumping big share of the spoils in the partition of China. The speakers . . . were no doubt doing their duty by the ruling class in talking platitudes about peace in .the present interlude between the 'last war’ and the next ‘last war’, because at the moment it is desirable to distract working class attention from the lining-up for the conflict to decide the mastery of the Pacific.

(From an article The Peace Society’, by E.R.H., Socialist Standard, November 1921).

Now they say there’s too much electricity (1971)

From the November 1971 issue of the Socialist Standard

Capitalism is facing another problem linked with the coming of potential abundance, this time in the field of electricity supply.

Nuclear power stations—which at present use the heat of nuclear fission to raise steam to drive the turbines generating electricity — can produce so much electricity that as more and more of them are built the problem is arising of what to do with the “surplus” produced during the hours of off-peak demand.

According to Keith Richardson, Industrial Editor of the Sunday Times in an article “Will they have to give electricity away free” (26 September), this was one of the matters discussed at a recent conference in Geneva on the peaceful uses of atomic energy. Since, apparently, nuclear power stations cannot be easily damped down from time to time in the way coal and oil-fired stations can, two possible solutions were discussed. One was to quite literally give away the “surplus” electricity free during off peak hours; the other was to waste the heat produced during this period by releasing it into the atmosphere. If capitalism’s past experience is anything to go by, there should be little doubt as to what will happen.

Free electricity, free transport, free goods and services generally—this is the way modern technology points. But all this is impossible under capitalism with its class monopoly of the means of Iife and its profit motive. Capitalism cannot digest abundance and has to seek ways to prevent and pervert its progress. Only when all the resources of the earth, natural and man-made, are owned in common by all the people of the world can they be used in a rational way – to provide an abundance of goods services which people can take and use freely as and when they need to.