Monday, March 06, 2017

The Task Ahead

Welcome to a world of unimaginable wealth and rampant inequality, a world where monolithic corporations act as a law unto themselves, where automation and technological progress threaten to undermine the very foundations of society, and where frightened, forgotten, and furious citizens turn in droves towards political extremism. The Socialist Party doesn’t pretend to have all the answers (although we do to many) and we are distrustful of those who think they do since humility is demanded of us.  In this starkly divided world, the question for ourselves is how to catalyse a united voice of engaged fellow-workers. Our greatest hope for the future rests with new solidarities being forged on the global stage, with the welfare of the collective whole being prioritised above the welfare of any one particular group or nation.  The starting point for the Socialist Party is how to unify our fellow workers on a  common platform for socialism, bringing together millions of people for a shared cause paving the way for social, economic and political transformations.
Stoking fear is a strategy that is emerging as a central agenda of populist politicians. They are employing scare-mongering tactics playing upon people's anxieties. They are cynically manipulating us, using fear as a way to dupe us into supporting their policies. Words have a power and their speeches are creating threats and dangers. Sadly, many fellow-workers are buying into the hate rhetoric. However, the process of creating fear and enemies is a two-way street. We are not mere puppets, with our leaders pulling our strings. We need vision. We need to be defiant. There can be no compromise or concession. Movements cannot win without promising a future that includes beauty, joy, and fun. "Dance the military guns to silence," said the Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa (executed for his activism against Shell.) It's easy right now to feel like we are facing something unprecedented and unbeatable, but many of the peoples' movements have fought much harsher regimes, but still kept fighting for justice and liberation, anyways, and some of them went on to win incredible victories.
Globalisation enabled global supply chains to spark trade and global economic growth. But the problems of globalization resulted in the loss of jobs, as factories relocated for cheaper labour, growing inequality. All the while, political elites are focused on profits, ignoring the growing anger from the working class. 
The negative impact of globalization exploded into populist nationalism. In the US, the 2008 Great Recession caused more than 2 million jobs lost and several million lost homes in the mortgage crisis while the too big to fail banks were given a life-line and bailed out. Two wars Iraq and Afghanistan costing more than $2 trillion and hundreds of lives shattered the confidence of the American people and sparked resentment against the political elite Demographic change - the diminishing white majority and the increase of non-English speaking immigrants across the US - coinciding with the election of the first black US president elected, the stagnation of wages since the 1980s, and increasing inequality, all led to the populist revolt and the discrediting mainstream politicians.
  Trump made trade and immigrants the villains for job losses. Yet, studies show that nine of ten US jobs lost since 2000 were due to technology and automation, not trade and that since 2014, there has been a net outflow of Mexicans from the US
But populist politics is driven by emotion, not reason. Trade and immigration became punching bags for the anger and frustration that Trump skillfully manipulated.   
In Europe, a number of factors combined to encourage populist nationalism and most dramatically, Brexit. The free flow of labor within the EU led to complaints of "Polish plumbers" in the UK. Growing numbers of Muslim immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East created cultural fear and anger. This has resulted in a growing number of authoritarian regimes, as in Hungary, and the rise of right-wing anti-immigrant politics personified by Brexit, Marine Le Pen in France, as well as similar parties in the Netherlands and in Germany.  
Socialism is the only way we can successfully resist populism. Let’s leave some of the historic baggage surrounding the word “socialism” at the door and start with a clean slate. Socialism does not mean government control. Socialism does not entail a tyrannical one-party state. Socialism means deepening democracy. Under capitalism, we have a political democracy of sorts. We vote for our politicians to “represent” us and make laws. Voting allows us to have a hand in creating the society we want to live in, and if our representatives aren’t doing a good job, we can vote them out.
Calling capitalism “democratic” is only half-true, however. Despite having political democracy, we do not have economic democracy. Think about your boss. Are you able to speak up and change them? Of course not. You’re beholden to your boss, and their word is law. Employees have little to no control over a company’s decisions. In essence, companies are little tyrannies where shareholders have all of the control and the workers are at the mercy of their judgment. If shareholders want to liquidate a company to make a couple million dollars and throw thousands of people out of work, hire a corrupt CEO, or pollute the environment—the workers have no power to say no. This is economic tyranny. Socialism’s solution to economic tyranny is common ownership and democratizing the workplace.
 Money continues to accumulate in the hands of a few and to favour the privileged. There are two worlds — one eating cake, the other, hungry for food. It appears to many that capitalism has only one agenda: to punish the impoverished and to increase inequality while protecting the prosperous and promoting the interest of the powerful. If we are to stop nationalism and populism, it is time for socialism. we must both persuade and mobilise. We have fallen short in both. Starting now, we have to do better.

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