Our Comrade Overseas (1974)

From the June 1974 issue of the Socialist Standard

Over the years since the formation of the SPGB, parties with the same Object and Declaration of Principles as ourselves have been established in other parts of the world. We have close contact with these parties in our efforts to put to the working class the necessity for world common ownership and free access. Like the SPGB our companion parties are small, but they are keeping to the fore the aim which can transform the world from its present crisis-ridden state. The contradiction between great wealth and the possibility of production in abundance on one hand, and mass deprivation on the other, grows more startling daily. These contradictions will one day throw up Socialist consciousness in the minds of the working class, like a world-wide volcano.

For this consciousness to arise, the working class will have to drop its adherence to reformist movements which come forward with their bankrupt promises to slay the dragon of capitalism, bit by bit. Capitalism must either be abolished by the deliberate action of workers, or it will remain. It cannot be reformed to work in the interests of the majority. It is up to the working class to free itself from the degradations of capitalism and establish Socialism. The function of the SPGB and its companion parties is to explain to the working class what capitalism is, what Socialism will be, and how workers themselves are the instruments for effecting the transformation. As Engels put it in his Socialism: Utopian and Scientific—

“To thoroughly comprehend the historical conditions and thus the very nature of this act, to impart to the now oppressed proletarian class a full knowledge of the conditions and of the meaning of the momentous act it is called upon to accomplish, this is the task of the theoretical expression of the proletarian movement, scientific Socialism.”

Below is a brief history and guide to our companion parties.

Socialist Party of Canada

The party’s origins go back to 1905, shortly after the inception of the SPGB. However it was a false start. The party, whilst containing Socialists, also attracted a large group of social reformers and its relationship with the SPGB had to be severed. The Russian Revolution exploded the apparent unity of the party, and the few remaining members only managed to struggle on until 1926. However, in 1931 another group of Socialists got together and formed the present party based on the uncompromising demand for immediate world Socialism. In 1933 the party started the journal The Western Socialist. Because of pressure by the wartime government in October 1939 the Western was handed over to the WSP of the US, who have since published it on behalf of both parties. The party is now working overtime in its efforts to spread Socialist understanding in North America. In 1970, having acquired an old offset press, the branch in Victoria started to publish its own leaflets, and their own journal Fulcrum now appears regularly. Recently the French-speaking area of Quebec has been subjected to a battery of Socialist propaganda. The results have been encouraging. In 1973 Socialisme Mondial first appeared; written in French, it is now available in France and Belgium as well as Canada.

World Socialist Party of the United States

The party was founded in Detroit in 1916 and then called, “The Workers’ Socialist Party of the United States”. The party was helped into existence by two members of the SPGB, Moses Baritz and Adolph Kohn, on the run from the British government’s war machine; their energy and drive forced those Socialists in the Detroit area to break away from the Socialist Party of America to form a party based on the Socialist platform only. Because of wartime conditions and the great distances between American cities they reverted to being a “Socialist Education Society” and continued — doing valuable work — in this form until they could re-start the WSP on a solid basis.

In 1929 their first publication appeared, and the present-day WSP was founded on 8th September 1930, with headquarters in New York. It was not until 1939 that a party journal was established on a firm footing. This was the Western Socialist, which the party took over from the Socialist Party of Canada. It is still going strong today. In the 1940s the party’s name was changed to its present name to avoid confusion with one of the numerous Trotskyist organizations in the USA. The party’s main activity now is publishing and distributing The Western Socialist (it goes to libraries and colleges throughout the US), and regular radio and occasional television broadcasts.

Socialist Party of New Zealand

The party was founded in 1930, although prior to that date there had been considerable Socialist propaganda in the country. In 1919 the party’s forefathers, The New Zealand Marxian Association, invited Moses Baritz to the country to do a series of talks. Baritz took the movement over there by storm; in a series of devastating lectures Baritz put the whole pseudo-socialist and pro-Russia movement to flight. Baritz was deported for his pains, but he had given the Socialist movement in New Zealand a great fillip. In 1934 the party’s first journal was produced which ran for five issues, and again in 1944 another journal came out which lasted four years. Now the party’s journal Socialist Viewpoint comes out bi-monthly. The party’s activity apart from Viewpoint is now concentrated round elections. In 1972 the party entered its first candidate in the New Zealand general elections, and intends to contest the 1975 general elections with, it is hoped, at least two candidates.

Socialist Party of Australia

The party was founded in 1928. However, a considerable amount of Socialist activity had taken place before then. Several seamen who had contact with the SPGB were active in Australia. Bill Casey and Barney Kelly, who were among those sailors and others propounding the Socialist analysis after the first World War in Australia, were sent to the Red Trade Union International in Moscow (in about 1921) as delegates of the seamen’s union. On their return the seamen’s journal refused to publish their report because it pointed out that what had taken place in Russia in 1917 was not a Socialist revolution. Moses Baritz (he seemed to get everywhere) also showed up in Australia in the early 1920’s like a Socialist tornado. By the time the party was formed, there was a certain amount of experience of activity to go on. Shortly after the party’s formation, members began to distribute the Socialist Standard. The Labour government of the day demonstrated its commitment to democracy by banning it for some time. In recent years it has been a struggle for the party to keep going. Vast distances between individual members make concerted party action difficult. However, the party distributes companion party journals and issues and distributes leaflets wherever possible. Individual members, as with members of all the Socialist parties, do all they can to put forward the Socialist case.

Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten of Austria

The party was formed in 1959. It emerged out of a loosely-knit group that had previously been operating in Vienna. Almost immediately the party began publishing a stencilled paper then called Das Freie Wort. In 1966 it officially adopted the SPGB Object and Declaration of Principles; now, as Internationales Freies Wort the paper is well established on a quarterly basis. A major influence on the Bund was Rudolf Frank. He had come under the spell of what he called “the SPGB university” prior to 1914 and his enormous experience helped greatly. Until his death, he played a large part in the writing and editing of the party’s publications. As well as distributing their paper, the party has good contacts with youth organizations and tries to spread Socialist understanding in every area possible.

World Socialist Party of Ireland

Formed in 1959, the party had an active and healthy existence until the recent outbreak of violence in north and south Ireland. The branches in Belfast and Dublin which had been doing stirring work distributing the socialist standard and generally pricking the political balloons of the apologists for capitalism, a task begun years earlier by Mick Cullen, (a thorn in the side of all anti-Socialists), have largely gone quiet since the start of the recent troubles. Socialists can only hope that the “normality” of British capitalism’s conditions will soon return to Ireland, to allow our comrades there the chance to take up again the cudgels of Socialism.

Socialist Group in Jamaica

The group was formed in the early 1960s almost entirely as a result of the pioneering efforts of a comrade who had been living in England for some time and having come into contact with the party’s Birmingham branch became a Socialist. When he returned to his home in Jamaica he devoted himself to spreading Socialist understanding. After a considerable struggle, the group managed to obtain a duplicating machine. Their journal Socialist Review now appears whenever possible, and is a credit to the devoted band of Socialists over there. 

Ronnie Warrington

The poison of development aid (1986)

From the Summer 1986 issue of the World Socialist

The following article has been translated from the Internationales Freies Wort, journal of the Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten, the section of the World Socialist Movement in Austria.

The poison gas catastrophe in Bhopal in India with its large number of dead plus many more blinded and injured shook world opinion. The American multinational chemical corporation Union Carbide, to whom the Indian poison laboratory belonged, was quick to point out in the media that its production of protection for plants (pesticides) aided India towards self-sufficiency in food and thereby saved many people from dying of hunger. So, after deducting the thousands who were poisoned Union Carbide still comes out as positive!

But the truth is that India doesn't need any poisonous material for pesticides. The poverty-stricken small farmers lack the most basic implements such as spades and hoes as well as pumps for irrigation, etc. But there's no business in this for big industry in the Western countries. So the underdeveloped countries get pushed the products which the industrialised countries want to sell, all in the name of development aid. In other words, "we are helping ourselves, not the underdeveloped countries" as no less than President Nixon openly declared when development aid was under attack in America.

So the Indians, happy with their unordered poison which of course the poverty-stricken small farmers could not buy, were forced to migrate to the towns as they couldn't make a living from agriculture, where they settled in front of the gates of the chemical factory and died "like flies" when the poison gas leak came.

World opinion, prevented from a correct insight into the problems of the underdeveloped countries by all the manoeuvres that go on over loans and exchange rates, was taken unawares by this catastrophe. But not anyone who had taken the trouble to inform themselves of the facts. Some years ago the American writer Susan George published her How The Other Half Dies in which she attacked established myths and exposed the businesses of the industrialised countries as responsible for the poverty of the underdeveloped countries.

Such statements are not approved of by the establishment of the industrialised countries — but the latter's failings make their investigation of the problem worthless. This is also the case with the "Independent Commission for Development Questions", a committee under the chairmanship of Willy Brandt (SPD), the majority of whose members are "representatives" of the underdeveloped countries themselves but they are all from the capital-benefiting elite-strata of these countries. The consequence is that the first report (1980) carefully avoids everything that could go against the capital interests of the industrialised countries and so ignores all the real problems and can show no way towards solving them.

The second report (1983) is just the same. In the foreword Brandt points out that events have regrettably confirmed the worst apprehensions of the first report. In which case the Brandt Commission was useless. Of the 94 proposals in the first report not one had been implemented. Of course something else will happen — more recommendations and more pious wishes.

Development to what?

In reality everything resolves around the preservation of the existing economic institutions of the industrialised countries. The assumption is that the underdeveloped countries should be lifted to the splendid heights of the developed countries. But people in the developing countries are less and less enchanted with this. It has been noticed that all the aid has not reduced the gap between living standards in the South and those in the North — on the contrary the backward countries have fallen even further behind. It has also been noticed that the industrialised countries are not a paradise for all their inhabitants. The introduction of industry into the underdeveloped countries has led to more disadvantages than advantages — the uprooting of traditional ways of living and working, the cut-back in home production in favour of the products of the multinational corporations, the growing impoverishment through the ever-increasing dispossession of those who are insolvent, ending in the disasters like Bhopal.

If the practice of industrial development is so unsatisfactory this is above all because its theory, the basic concept of raising the underdeveloped countries to the level of the developed countries, is nonsense from the beginning. When the whole world is "developed" and busies itself with profitable stock exchange transactions where would the raw materials and foodstuffs at present imported from the underdeveloped countries come from?

But this leads to the view that real aid for the underdeveloped countries demands fundamental changes in the developed countries — and that the establishment does not want to hear. It wants to push forward normal business to an ever greater extent, to exploit the population of the underdeveloped countries as underpaid producers of raw materials and, beyond this, also to make them low-wage industrial workers and customers for the products of the multinationals. In this effort large factories have been set up in the underdeveloped countries, to the detriment of existing industries in the developed countries. Their financing has mainly come from credit.

International debts

High finance, which likes to go on about being thrifty, once again didn't follow its own advice. The big banks queued up to lend credits to the underdeveloped countries. Now they are faced with the international debt problem, the consequences of which are borne by the underdeveloped countries. Over-burdened with debts these have growing interest payments and an increasing dollar exchange rate to worry about too. The much-ballyhooed recovery of the American economy which Reagan boasts about has taken place mainly to the detriment of other countries. Tax reductions for the rich and unlimited increasing arms spending has led to an enormous deficit in the American budget with no noticeable inflation — at home. The inflation was in fact exported through the increased interest rates which attracted international capital to the US and made it a debtor country, but pushed up the exchange rate of the dollar.

The underdeveloped countries are now faced with a mountain of debts expressed in expensive dollars, borrowed at ever-increasing rates of interest. On top of this the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which the second Brandt report still hoped would increase its support for these countries, forced devaluations on the debtors, further increasing the burden of their dollar debt. In 1985 the interest payments alone were 50 per cent of the borrowed amount for Argentina and Brazil and 40 per cent in the case of Mexico. These are the so-called "threshold countries" who stand on the threshold of industrialisation and so should be "somewhat better" than the ordinary underdeveloped countries!

The Debtors

Brazil was the first country to break the hundred billion dollar debt level. In Sao Paulo 34 per cent of those available for work are unemployed. They don't known that they each owe 14,000 Schillings (about $750) to the international bankers, and, even if they did know, it wouldn't worry them. The debts were contracted under the military regime to use on numerous large projects which were in part profitable, but which in many cases became unprofitable through mismanagement and the downturn in the economy. Home-produced cars fill the streets, but have no petrol and run on alcohol which is produced from raw sugar. The cultivation of this together with that of soya beans for export means that the cultivation of foodstuffs has fallen by 12 per cent, and this in a country of chronic undernourishment! The really pressing problem of increasing the production of home-grown foodstuffs has been forgotten in the industrialisation-illusion.

The Pinochet regime in Chile, supported by international finance capital, came to power through the murder of the democratically-elected President Allende and has since practised a murderous reign of terror. But this has not meant that there have been no business swindles under it. The five big banks which Pinochet had privatised could only be saved from bankruptcy by being renationalised. And a number of bankers and two Ministers have been found guilty of fraud by the Courts.

In this respect there is no essential change if a military government is replaced by a civilian one, as has happened in Argentina and now also in Brazil, so long as the civilian government continues to obey international capital and its bailiff, the IMF. In the rest of South America and in Africa and Asia things are similar: foreign credit is mainly used for projects which ignore the needs of the population because these only very sporadically correspond to the valorisation requirements of capital.

The spectre

There is a saying that if you owe the bank $1000 you have problems but that if you owe the bank $1,000,000 the bank has problems. And the underdeveloped countries have debts of billions of dollars! Hence the spectre of a debtor's cartel: if all the developing countries were to stop their payments at the same time then all the big banks in the industrialised countries would go bankrupt and there would be an economic earthquake. At present it hasn't happened as the governments in these backward countries are in the hands of wealthy capital-benefiting minorities and have openly gone into the (well paid) service of the foreign exploiters. But in the last analysis they have to understand that an explosion threatens them if they exact further sacrifices from the population.

The creditors can no longer seriously hope to ever recover their capital. It is now only a case for the creditor-banks of not having to cancel the uncollected debts and thereby admit their faulty credit position. The debtors are given a delay for repayment and are lent yet more money so that they can pay the interest. In theory the debtors receive the new money but they never see it; it remains in New York, London, etc in the hands of the banks who are thus enabled to achieve considerable profits.

The truth is that these countries can only settle these new debts inadequately. Among the many proposed solutions there is the tried solution which always emerges when the capitalists are in difficulty: let the much-suffering state pay! This would save the banks, before or after, from their bankruptcy - naturally at the expense of the majority of the population of the industrialised countries who thereby see established a forced solidarity with the inhabitants of the underdeveloped countries.

We can't help thanking them. Financial pressures have produced more than enough harm — they have poisoned not only the thousands in Bhopal but the whole economy of the underdeveloped countries. And the economy of the industrialised countries is in no better state: they suffer from stagnation and unemployment and so have unused resources that could be used to produce the things the underdeveloped countries really need.

But this is opposed to the basic principles of the profit economy: only what yields or at least promises a profit is produced. Here is the real problem and any attempt to find a solution must start from here. The removal of the profit system is the watchword. That the Brandt Commission and the other aid schemes are chained to the profit system is the real reason for their failure.

Austria (1967)

From the December 1967 issue of the Socialist Standard

ALLE MENSCHEN SIND BRUDER—DIE GANZE ERDE IHR VATERLAND is the headline of the latest issue (Oct.-Nov.-Dec. 1967) of the WFW, quarterly journal of our comrades in Austria. The WFW is also serialising our pamphlet Russia 1917-1967 A Socialist Analysis. The first part appears in this issue. Obtainable price 1/- (excluding postage) from our Head Office, 52 Clapham High Street, London, S.W.4.

Obituary: Friedrich Vogt (2010)

Obituary from the August 2010 issue of the Socialist Standard

We were sad to learn of the sudden death, at the age of 88, of Comrade Frriedrich Vogt in Vienna.  He was one of a group of trade unionists and former members of the Austrian Social Democratic party that broke away in 1959 and eventually, in 1966, through contact with Comrade Rudolf Frank there, came to accept the object and declaration of principles of the World Socialist Movement.

As there was already a registered “Socialist Party” in Austria, the new group was named Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten (League of Democratic Socialists). Members addressed each other as “Genosse/Genossin” rather than as “Kamerad” as this was associated with the Austrian Communist Party.

Although they held informal discussion meetings, the members’ main activity was the production and distribution of their newspaper format journal Internationales Freie Wort (International Free Word). Although they had a list of subscribers, canvassing was by far the main method of sale. On my only visit I took part in this. Up and down the stairs of apartment blocks was certainly amongst the hardest work I have done for Socialism!

Unfortunately, as members aged and became physically less able they could not keep up with this strenuous work and publication of the IFW ceased.

During the war Friedrich was conscripted into the German Army to fight on the Russian Frant but was soon sent back as unsuitable because of his behaviour. He attended our Conference just once and told me how much he enjoyed meeting members here, some of whom kept in touch. We have lost a friend as well as a comrade and the companion parties a staunch and tireless worker for Socialism.

Eva Goodman

Socialism has never been tried (1999)

From the July 1999 issue of the Socialist Standard

Socialism is a simple idea but people don’t know what it is.

In our present-day selfish society, any talk of a society based on solidarity will usually be met by little more than a dismissive nod. “Don’t tell me–yet another collection for a few more poor devils! I’m sick to death of these collections–I’m getting very sceptical about them.” So when socialists try to explain that a society based on solidarity (traditionally called socialism) would have nothing in common with the present-day begging bandwagon, all they usually get is an incredulous groan. So what do socialists actually say? That we only have to want it and we can live in a moneyless world in which anyone can simply walk into a warehouse and take what they need, a world in which there are no armies, no police, no banks or stock exchanges, and no national borders. Clearly, anyone presenting such an argument must expect to be regarded as being mixed up or—an idealist. Such a reaction is understandable, as even the simplest of processes, the simplest of solutions must of course seem completely crazy to people like those depicted above, who have only a nebulous or completely distorted image of what a society based on solidarity means.

But socialists, on the strength of their knowledge and conviction, mean exactly what they say. More than that, they can prove not only that such a society is possible, but that it represents the only humane solution to present-day problems. Politics means something completely different to us than to the capitalist parties from far left to far right. We maintain that all current problems, such as wars, environmental pollution, racism, crimes of the worst kind, squandering of raw materials, housing speculation and not least unemployment, are not caused by governments or specific leaders, but are a product of the way in which society is organised worldwide.

Characteristics

The present-day system—we call it the capitalist system—is characterised by the fact that the basic essential resources for the production of goods, in other words the production plants, the entire transport network, the mines and other sources of raw materials, are in the hands of barely 5 percent of the world’s population. This minority includes both private companies and those here and there still in charge of state industries. Common to all of these is the fact that they supply goods and services only on condition that they can draw maximum profit from them. This is essentially how they are able force the other 90 to 95 percent of the world’s population to live and work under the conditions they do. It is the cause of all the serious problems in society.

Those who understand this basic premise, namely that the whole of society is subordinated to the profit motive, are already qualified to understand our case. They will understand that, notwithstanding the constant drivel spouted by professional politicians, in the present form of society profit is of necessity much more important than human interest. They will understand that any party which recognises the capitalist system can act only in the interests of that system. How often do we hear the old excuse that we are governed by circumstances?

The alternative to this—a society based on solidarity—has never seen the light of day in any country in the world. We socialists stand for the co-operation of all people worldwide on the basis of free decision-making and democratic control. We maintain—and anyone can check this claim—that the technical means have long since reached the stage at which we can use the world’s raw materials in the most economical manner so as to guarantee everyone a sufficient supply of the necessities of life, in every sense of the term. A minimum of effort—which is an obligation for all members of a community—will create a maximum of contentment, of joie de vivre.

Capitalism is essentially based on scarcity of resources. Such scarcity is maintained in the interests of profit, among other means by the ruthless squandering of human life and raw materials.

Moderate abundance

A society based on solidarity has as its foundation a system characterised by moderate abundance. Under such circumstances, the whole process of buying and selling clearly becomes superfluous. Poverty, strikes, stock market crashes, economic crises and barbaric wars will only be found in the history books. Striving for the best possible production results with ever improving human conditions will form the basis of activity for all those working in production, science and research.

On this basis, a community can be constructed in which all branches of art and culture will flourish. The upbringing of the young will be flooded with new ideas, as will the education system as a whole. The entire health sector will be freed from the miserable constraints of monetary considerations and be devoted entirely to humanity, to the benefit of all members of the community.

Under such circumstances, men and women will be filled not with hate and envy but with contentment and pride when they look at the products of the human mind.

What we need is great people, not great leaders

Anyone striving for a society based on solidarity does not need leaders. You cannot have leaders without the led, and by that we mean people led up the garden path their whole life long. For us, democracy is not simply a method of swindling people and in the final analysis continually depriving them of the fruits of their labour. We do not seek personal power or power for a small clique. We do not want some minority living a life of luxury at the expense of others.

Our aim is a society based on solidarity, in other words socialism. This means that, with the elimination of the downtrodden status of the working class, class society as a whole will be abolished. And not 10, 20 or 100 years after men and women have freely decided to abolish the exploitation of human beings by other human beings, but immediately afterwards. Anything less would be dishonest.

We are convinced that neither praying to gods, symbols of any kind or dogmas, nor placing one’s trust without any justification whatsoever in enlightened leaders is of any benefit to humanity. Nor are we nationalists. Our philosophy can be summed up by the slogan: one world, one people, socialism! This commits us to allegiance to the 90 percent and more of the world’s population who, like us, are victims of domination and exploitation.

Socialists cannot deviate from these basic principles. They therefore oppose all groups which support the profit system in its various forms and stages of development.

We are part of the working class. If we wish to live, we must sell our mental and physical efforts like the majority of the world’s population. We know capitalism from the bitter experience of those at the bottom. We do not belong to those privileged by this system, those who generally see nothing more in other human beings than inevitable cost factors, to be hired or fired, as appropriate, in order to guarantee profits and thereby privileges.

Many of our fellow citizens regard us as utopians. This is not because our ideas are unsound but because the defenders of the inhumane profit system have at their disposal a massive propaganda machine which day and night clouds people’s clear vision of things.

Hear us out. Talk with us. By all means question what we and others are saying, but remember one thing: the decision lies with you and with you alone.

Socialism is the simplest thing in the world. It is based on the voluntary co-operation of all members of society and guarantees free access to the fruits of their labour. Clearly, such a system can function only if it is based on the consciously expressed will of the majority of the members of society. There is no better means of establishing this will than by secret ballot. It is therefore essential to put up as many candidates as possible as quickly as possible, and thereby enable an unambiguous decision to be made between capitalism and socialism.

Help us bring about the simplest thing in the world. It cannot be done without you.

(Translated by M.D. from the March 1997 issue of Internationales Freies Wort, quarterly publication of the Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten, the World Socialist Movement party in Austria)

A socialist view of Austrian politics (1970)

Party News from the May 1970 issue of the Socialist Standard

We set out below part of the address of our Comrade Albert Kurz, fraternal delegate of the Bund Demokratsher Socialister to the Easter Conference of the Socialist Party of Great Britain.

We in Austria haven't a party with a long tradition as you have. And, Comrades, there is a great difference between the conditions you have here and we have. You in Britain have a long democratic parliamentary tradition. Though it is a bourgeois tradition, it is by means of this tradition easiest to spread the great idea of Socialism.

We in Austria, on the contrary haven’t that tradition. We have had one fascist government after another. People who were so-called reds, that means social democrats, were jailed in the year 1937. So they had to turn “blacks", that meant conservatives in order to earn their living. These were the years of the great depression. After the German invasion of Austria in 1938 both the reds and the blacks were jailed by the Nazis. They had to join the Nazi party to avoid persecution. After the year 1945 they were expelled from any public employment for having been Nazis. I don't want even to mention the time of the 19th century in which police spies put their noses in all affairs of public life.

So it is not a surprise that people in Austria haven’t faith in parliamentarians and democracy to the extent that a bourgeois government can be called democratic. So at least officially nobody is being persecuted for being a Socialist. Although many people arc afraid.

You see, these are the great barriers we have in our work.

People grew afraid of being mixed up with politics, for as I told you, they burned too often their hands.

In these conditions we have, we must do our best. We haven’t a paper for such a long time as you. For many years we had a duplicated paper which was published monthly. The last years we have a printed paper, but we can afford to publish it only four times a year.

Austria (1966)

Party News from the December 1966 issue of the Socialist Standard

The League of Democratic Socialists
The Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten, whose journal we have been advertising in our columns, was set up in 1959 by people who had left the Socialist Party of Austria (SPO) and the Communist Party and wanted a clear way to Socialism. The League has always had a declaration of principles that was in essentials the same as that of our companion parties of Socialism. The League came into contact with one of our comrades in Vienna and in March, 1966, the Executive Committee of the League decided to adopt the same Declaration of Principles as ours as the basis for further activity. Since March their journal, Das Wiener Freie Wort (Vienna Free Voice), has carried this declaration. The League is in some difficulties as to a name since the SPO has the prerogative, funder law, of all versions of party names using "socialist".

Party News: Eine Welt — Eine Menschheit — Sozializmus! (1968)

Party News from the June 1968 issue of the Socialist Standard

This is the theme of the current (April/May/June) issue of the “Internationales Freies Wort”, the German language Socialist journal brought out by our comrades of the Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten in Austria and their friends in Germany and Switzerland. This special 6-page issue is directed at workers in West Germany. There are articles from Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States, thus bringing out the international nature of Socialism. Other items discussed are the rise and fall of the German Social Democratic Party and Rudi Dutschke, the student leader and recent victim of an assassination bid. Also the third part of “Russland 1917-1967. Eine sozialistische Analyse”. Order your copy, price 1/- (postage extra), from the Socialist Party, 52 Clapham High Street, London, SW4.

News From Austria (1990)

Party News from the December 1990 issue of the Socialist Standard 

The new situation in Europe will surely give us much to do in the foreseeable future. What we have said for so many years has been proved clearly. No trace of socialism in the "Communist” empire. With all the weapons of bloody suppression, the "communists" tried to pretend their state capitalism was the non plus ultra. Now the house of lies falls apart and the inheritance of poverty of mind and in material things is exposed. It seems as though international capitalism has triumphed: “socialism” is at an end and the market economy has triumphed! However the facts throughout the world show there is nothing for the profit system to celebrate. Do they want to celebrate the unseen masses of corpses, ruins and millions of people wounded in body and mind for which the profit system has been responsible this century? Not a day goes by which does not prove that it is not possible for capitalism to produce anything else.

We have just had elections in Austria. As all the parties stand for capitalism, we called for the return of blank ballot papers. It is interesting to note that ever more people oppose the existing parties. In Vienna where there used to be a 90 per cent vote for the main parties. 31 per cent either spoilt their ballot papers or did not vote all all. The SPO lost 121,000 votes. Only because the other major party, the Volkspartei, lost even more votes was it possible for the SPO to remain the strongest party.

The SPO will shortly change its name from "Sozialistische Partei" to "Sozial- demokratische Partei". "Socialism" is no longer "in” in the Party of bankers and millionaires! Still, we must not be unfair . . . a change of name will not make the lies they propagate any less!

Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten, 

Vienna

Austria (1967)

Party News from the February 1967 issue of the Socialist Standard

After consultations among all the Socialist parties the Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten is now officially one of the companion parties. As explained in the December Socialist Standard the League's official journal Das Wiener Freie Wort, has carried the same Declaration of Principles as the other parties since March last year. The third issue of their journal is now available from 52 Clapham High Street, London. SW4. Price 1s.

Obituary: Solomon Goldstein (1994)

Obituary from the October 1994 issue of the Socialist Standard

We have to report the death of Solomon Goldstein. Goldstein (as he was known in the Party) joined at the age of 16 in 1931 after listening to Party outdoor speakers near Brick Lane, in East London, where he lived all his life. Soon he himself was speaking both outdoors and as an indoor lecturer where his specialist subject was Marxian economics, contributing in no small way to the Party’s reputation in this field.

Coming from a Yiddish-speaking family he was easily able to learn German and became as fluent in it as he was in English. Indeed, he used to claim that you couldn’t understand Marxian economics properly unless you had read Capital the originaL

When he was ailed up to take part in the second world slaughter he applied for registration as a Conscientious Objector but was turned down and decided to go on the run. His health suffered and after the war he was never the same, having to spend long periods in hospitaL Although he had ceased to be a member some years ago he still bought the Socialist Standard and corresponded with the Internationales Fries Wort the German-language socialist journal published by our comrades in Austria.

Paddington and Marylebone (1965)

Party News from the September 1965 issue of the Socialist Standard

Paddington and Marylebone Branch have held a continuous series of lectures and discussions since Easter. We had the pleasure of listening to our comrade Alice Petersen from Copenhagen talk on the educational system in Denmark. The following week our veteran and staunch comrade Rudolf Frank from Vienna spoke to us about the work of the Socialist Group in Austria. And then we were visited by our comrade Charlie Davis (Secretary of the New York Local of the WSP of the USA) and we had a very interesting discussion with him. The international flavour to our meetings was continued at a later meeting when we had a visitor front Italy, who addressed the Branch in Italian, and with the help of a member who could speak Italian, members were able to discuss with him. We made a propaganda trip to Brighton and held two good meetings on the front. To the end of the year a varied series of lectures and discussions have been organised, and we welcome you to all our meetings. We meet every Wednesday at 8.45 p.m. (see page 134).

Branch Organiser.

Get out of the darkness (1967)

From the Seven Days for Socialism! International Supplement (August 1967)

Measured by capitalist yardsticks the economy has been working quite well for some 15 years. In that time great wealth had been created, productivity and profits increased enormously and, in keeping with the interests of capital, wages were kept as low as possible. Two ways above all were used to keep wages low: one was by ‘controlled’ inflation, the other by the propaganda smoke-screen. At this point the trade unions must be mentioned. With the cheap phrase of ‘partnership’ they have consciously prevented the workers’ struggle for ‘a larger slice of the cake’. It follows without saying that trade unions such as these are not in a position to help their membership to a higher level of thinking in political economy.

The majority of trade union bosses call themselves socialists. It is impossible to say why they do so. From 1945 the trade unions had allowed their entire activity to be guided by the interests of the capitalist economy. The largest trade union, that of the metal workers and miners, expressly professed support for the capitalist system.

For some three years now the pretty picture of ‘our economy’ is showing some serious spots. More and more ‘partners’ are getting into difficulties. In the first place there is the mining industry. The miners are being given promises from all sides—and nothing else; unless the organising of petitioning deputations by the trade unionists to be considered a particular achievement. Things are well and truly going downhill fast, from partner to petitioner!

For more than 20 years the representatives of the trade unions and the so-called Socialist Party of Austria (SPA) had been in the Government. Time and again they declared that this time things were different and that, besides, today’s capitalism was no longer as dangerous at that which, for example, Marx had described. With which they connected straight away the insidious criticism of Marx of the present time. The essence of this criticism is the claim that in his time and day Marx had no doubt been right, but today . . .

Right to the last days of their government activity the SPA and the trade union leaders have endeavoured to make the ‘spots’ appear to be not all that dangerous. “You just give us your vote and we will straighten things out.’’ This calculation did not work out, however. The workers of course did not have a clear view of things; this must be stated quite clearly. This is why they failed to see any clear alternative to the shameful S P A and trade union policy. But where was a clear view to come from? Twenty years of intensive smoke-screening with the aid of every conceivable medium (television, radio, press, films, etc.), could not fail to have effect.

The voice of Socialism is still much too weak in this country to stand up to the tremendous din of the smoke-screen apparatus.

Even if the workers did not see any alternative, they did recognise that the ‘workers’ leaders’ had to be given a lesson. The SPA had to realise that they could not reach for the sky and they were removed from the Government.

From one day to the next there was a change in the language of these gentlemen. Astonishing what discoveries they made. Under the slogan ‘insolence prevails’ they simply disregard the fact that for two decades they had busily helped to brew what workers are given to swallow today!

We know full well what workers have to expect from the Austrian People’s Party; nothing good! We must refute any attempt however of the trade unions and the S P A at vindicating themselves! The ills which threaten us today do not in any way result from the absolute power of the A P P but they spring as always from the capitalist system! And in Austria this system was ‘reconstructed’ with the energetic co-operation of the SPA, the Communist Party and the trade unions.

Wherever these ‘socialists’ are doing ‘practical’ work they do not deny in their deeds with what system they are allied. Let us take the high cost of living. The Vienna Transport Board has increased fares enormously. Public transport to work alone costs a worker 500 schillings more per annum than it used to. In many trades this is the equivalent of a week’s wages. The reason given for this increase was the same that all capitalists advance: “We must put our fares up because the price of everything is going up! ”

That is to apply to all prices and fares, with one exception. The price for the commodity labour-power is to remain the same or even to be reduced. In fact, the trade unions did not in any way react seriously to the latest great wave of price increases.

The employers make virtue out of necessity. They say they do not welcome the crisis but that it has many good side-effects. The famed-infamous ‘workers’ morale’ would increase, absenteeism would decline and the ‘partner’ would regain a clearer sense of proportion in which his partnership could find expression. This is how things look on the ‘branch’ which Böhm-Schani and his disciples have so warmly commended to us. However, at the same time, it has shown up in its full light the true format of these ‘great leaders and statesmen’.

We socialists see in all these phenomena the symptoms of the disease of our time. This disease however, rotting capitalism, is not going to disappear of its own volition. Ours is the choice of being shaken by its shivers of fever for the whole of our lives or of using our brains and using successfully the only antidote, fraternal co-operation. Socialism!

Only then will man be able to live truly as man. Only then will it be no longer necessary for workers to have to beg for an opportunity to work and for men and women to be forced, after a life of labour and want, to have to drag themselves along to protest meetings in order to be able to keep some part of their standard of living.

Peace and prosperity will then be truly secured as a matter of course. Man will step from the darkness of the jungle into the bright light of the landscape of culture.

 Workers! women and men!
The future lies in the hands of the workers.
“We want no condescending saviours to rule us from a judgment hall.
We workers ask not for their favours, let us consult for all ”

Eine Welt — Eine Menschheit — Sozializmus! (1968)

Party News from the May 1968 issue of the Socialist Standard

This is the theme of the current (April/May/June) issue of the “Internationales Freies Wort”, the German language Socialist journal brought out by our comrades of the Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten in Austria and their friends in Germany and Switzerland. This special 6-page issue is directed at workers in West Germany. There are articles from Australia, Britain, Canada and the United States, thus bringing out the international nature of Socialism. Other items discussed are the rise and fall of the German Social Democratic Party and Rudi Dutschke, the student leader and recent victim of an assassination bid. Also the third part of “Russland 1917-1967. Eine sozialistische Analyse”. Order your copy, price 1/- (postage extra), from the Socialist Party, 52 Clapham High Street, London, SW4.

News From Vienna (1965)

Party News from the September 1965 issue of the Socialist Standard

Several members in the London area recently had the pleasure of meeting Comrade Rudolf Frank, who was here on a short visit and brought first-hand news of activities in Vienna.

Five hundred workers of the Austrian Democratic Party broke away some time ago and formed themselves into the Bund demokratischer Sozialisten (Alliance of democratic Socialists). This Group publishes a bi-monthly journal, the Wiener Freie Wort (The Vienna Free Word) commenting on local and world politics. A group of members of this Alliance have for some time been in contact with the Party and Comrade Frank, who has been working with them generally as well as organising classes on Marxian Economics. 

The results of this co-operation have been very obvious in the tenor of articles being published in the Wiener Freie Wort, recent issues of which have also Carried translations of articles from The Western Socialist and The Socialist Standard. The Group is at the moment looking for suitable offices and, when these have been found, they hope to become even more active. Their future activities include plans for participation in local and General elections in Austria.

BDS Election Campaign (1974)

Party News from the January 1974 issue of the Socialist Standard

The Bund Demokratischer Sozialisten, our companion Socialist Party in Austria, decided to put up a candidate in the Vienna municipal elections which were due to take place in the spring of 1974. Due to the total lack of ability on the part of the elected Mayor, the SPO (the Austrian Social Democratic Party) were forced to recall him and put forward a new man. As it was feared that their opponents would use the intervening period until 1974, the SPO, who are the majority Party, decided to bring the elections forward to 21st October 1973. This made extra problems for us in that, with our meagre resources, we had to try and obtain the 100 signatures in a much shorter time and, in the event, this proved impossible and we managed only 73. In spite of this we regard our activities as having been successful. It was the greatest effort ever made by the BDS. Never before have we visited so many people in such a short time and made them aware of our existence. We have made a great number of new contacts which we hope to follow up in the next months. With our papers and posters, together with our leaflet, thousands of people have been made aware of our Party and our political standpoint.

This time there were 3,000 copies of the Internationales Freies Wort (usually 2,000). Of these 1,100 were sent by post to ordinary supporters of the SPO and another 1,500 were distributed free to contacts we made. 400 went to subscribers and other regular purchasers. As well as this we had 3000 posters; to date, approximately 1,500 of these have been posted. However, as the contents are not exclusively directed at these elections, we shall be using the remainder for other activities. Apart from this we printed a leaflet (10,000 copies) of which we actually distributed 9,000 in house-to-house distribution.

This, the most ambitious activity of the BDS to date was also, of course, the most expensive and has completely exhausted our resources. We spent 9000 schilling (approx. £200) and, in spite of generous support of members and sympathisers, and in spite of the help of the comrades in Britain, some of the bills are still outstanding. (Donations please to BDS, see address on p. 15).

Nevertheless we feel it right that we should use all possible opportunities to put forward our objective, Socialism, to as many people as possible.