• I AM pleased to announce I have been nominated again to stand as the Socialist Party candidate in Islington North.  I will be the only candidate on the ballot paper standing for socialism.

The skills, resources and technology exist to feed clothe and house every man, woman and child on the planet, without exception. The resources are there so that we could all do that by working far fewer than five days a week each.

All the other candidates, whether consciously or not, will be standing in favour of the continued existence of poverty. Poverty, and unemployment, are not accidental features of capitalism, but core and essential components.

Anyone who seeks to retain the existence of a society based on the employment of waged labour to produce goods and services for sale at a profit – capitalism – is advocating the continued existence of poverty.

Taxing the rich is simply trying to use poverty to end poverty. Markets cannot cure the problems caused by markets.

Periodic economic crises are not an accidental but an essential part of capitalism, re-imposing artificial scarcity whenever production levels approach abundance. Supporting capitalism means supporting crises and chaos.

If the majority of people want to end poverty, we can do it. We can end the chaos of the wage and market system. We can take the wealth of the world into common ownership, and directly allocate resources to meet human need.

The start of that path lies in voting for the Socialist Party, rather than expressing support for the failed idea of state-managed markets.

BILL MARTIN
Socialist Party parliamentary candidate, Islington North