The capitalist class have successfully pitted private sector workers who have been losing their pensions against public sector folks who were still hanging on to theirs—a tried and true divide-and-conquer tactic.
What are we waiting for? How long are we going to sit idly by? How long are we going to ignore the capitalists fill their wallets and bellies to overflowing while millions of children perish from hunger and preventable diseases? How long are we going to accept the unjust inequality of the 1% pocketing the wealth generated by the toil of the 99%? How long are we going to accept the insanity of raping and plundering our planet’s finite resources to the point that none of us will be able to survive? Let the Revolution begin!
Corporate elites and their political lackeys possess little concern for human well-being or the environment. Wall Street and the City of London gamble in a global casino where the odds are rigged in favor of the house; and the house just happens to be owned by the 1%. Meanwhile, the biggest losers in this capitalist casino lose more than money; they lose their homes, their health, their education, their means of subsistence, their dignity, even their lives. These are the ultimate victims of capitalism.
The suffering is not simply an unfortunate consequence of capitalism; it constitutes the very foundation of the system. The theft of the peoples’ lands created the wealth that funded the Industrial Revolution. Was it not the Enclosure Acts that forced people off the land and robbed them of their means of subsistence so that they could be “free” to toil in the miserable conditions of the factories of industrial England? Was it not the forced kidnapping of millions of Africans and their enslavement in the Americas that fuelled “development” in the United States. The same violent practices have continued to this day with the ongoing forced displacement of peasants from their lands throughout the global South so capitalist robber barons can continue to exploit the planet’s natural resources in order to line their own pockets.
In the first decade of the 21st century more than 120 million people died because the structures of the capitalist system prevented them from meeting their basic needs. Meanwhile, Europeans spend more money annually on ice cream than the amount required to provide clean drinking water and basic sanitation to everyone in the Global South. And Americans and Europeans together spend more on pet food each year than the amount needed to provide basic healthcare to the world’s poor. Only in the capitalist system does it make more sense to produce ice cream and pet food for the wealthy than clean water and healthcare for billions of people who do not constitute a viable market because their labor is not required and they are too poor to be consumers. Only capitalism can render half of humanity disposable!
There exists a propaganda machine that convinces us to accept this unjust reality. Our education system demands order and obedience within hierarchical authoritarian structures that grade us and categorize us according to the needs of a society whose values are dictated by capitalist elites. Why else would we be forced to sit obediently in rows, to memorize the ridiculous myths about “democracy” and “freedom” and “justice” that are spoon fed to us from white-washed textbooks? Not only does education bury our conscience, it also crushes our spirit. The only thing that we are good for upon graduation is to enter an equally rigid workplace that demands the same order and obedience. We have not been educated; we’ve been indoctrinated! The media further indoctrinate us through sensationalized stories that serve to reinforce the beliefs and myths instilled in us by the education system and to distract us from the real issues that impact our lives and the world in which we live.
To those who believe they have an inalienable right to perpetrate their brutal exploitation of people and nature; to those who use the wealth generated by OUR labor to build THEIR mansions and privileged lifestyles - Beware!
Imagine a world in which all resources were distributed so that no child ever went hungry. Imagine a world in which we cared about our neighbor more than we care about a contestant on a reality TV show or a character in a soap opera. Imagine a world in which nurturing Mother Earth was more fulfilling than shopping for a new pair of shoes or the latest electronic gadget. Imagine a world in which we co-operate rather than compete with each other. Imagine a world where that cooperation extends to the workplace and we are empowered by a collective decision-making process rather than being mere appendages of the production system forced to obediently follow the dictates of others. Imagine a world where authoritarianism does not exist in the political realm, in our workplaces or in our homes. Imagine a world in which ALL of us have a meaningful voice in ALL of the major decisions that impact our lives. Imagine a world where ALL blacks, whites, browns, males, females and queers are seen as equal human beings. In short, imagine a world of harmony and compassion. Some might say that such a world is nothing more than a utopian dream, but it is the belief that we can continue as we are that is utopian.
Adapted from an article by Garry Leech which can be read in its entirety here.
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