Which side are you on?

Why can’t we ensure that everyone has good food to eat, that everyone can access medical services, that all youngsters get the education they desire, that our elderly live in security and dignity, that working conditions are safe and that the environment is protected. The answer is that we live under CAPITALISM – a global system based on the exploitation of the majority by the minority. And the solution to all these problems is SOCIALISM – a global system based on mass democracy. Socialism has nothing to do with state control. The governments of the United States and China control a similar proportion of their economies – about 30 percent – and neither nation is socialist. Both the U.S. and China are capitalist nations with economies based on the private ownership of production. Socialism is based on the collective and democratic control of production. There are no socialist economies in the world today, no nations where the working-class collectively controls production. Not any – not even close. Socialism is not possible in one workplace, one city, one state or one nation because only one class can rule.

The capitalist class and the working class have opposite goals and conflicting values: Bosses want workers to produce more and faster. Workers want to slow down to preserve their health. Bosses want lower wages so they can boost profits. Workers want higher wages so they can pay their bills. The drive for profit shapes values of the capitalist class – greed, corruption, and the hunger for power. Mutual dependence shapes the values of the working class – solidarity (an injury to one is an injury to all) and self-determination (what we wish for ourselves, we want for all). The capitalist class and the working class are like oil and water.

Who is better qualified to meet human needs: the capitalist elite that produces only for profit; or the working people who produce the goods and provide the services we all need? Who is more cooperative: the bosses who compete for profit; or the workers who must pull together to get the job done? Humanity has spent the vast majority of its history in cooperative, sharing societies. Class-divisions appeared only about 10,000 years ago. Modern socialism would differ from primitive socialism in two important ways: it would be organized on a global scale; and it would be based on abundance, not scarcity. It’s time that we organized to take back our world. The current crisis is opening a space to discuss genuine socialism, a democracy where ordinary people take collective control of the economy and direct it to meet human needs. The material conditions already exist for such a society. Because socialism is based on sharing, there must be more than enough to go around. That is not a problem. Between 1800 and 2000, the amount of wealth produced grew eight times faster than the global population. Only a few have benefited.

Most people do not view socialism as a viable alternative, because they have been bamboozled into thinking that there is no alternative to capitalism. This makes no sense. Human beings create society. We have changed it many times in the past, and we can change it again.  Most people would be much better off in a cooperative society. However, capitalism cannot tolerate demands for a society based on cooperation. The people in power must make “socialism” a dirty word because, if the majority realized that they could solve their problems and meet their needs without bosses and rulers, they would abandon capitalism in a heartbeat. To make socialism a viable alternative, we must build socialist organizations where workers can break free of the lies that bind and blind them to capitalism, including the lie that they are too stupid or lazy to run the world for themselves and one another. Where the capitalists divide in order to rule, socialists connect individuals, causes, past events and future dreams into a unified struggle for majority rule. Where the capitalists infect workers with fear, pessimism and a sense of powerlessness, socialists link workers’ experience of individual suffering with their collective power to eliminate that suffering.

Socialists believe in the working class, even when it does not believe in itself. No one can know when the next struggles will erupt, or what their outcome will be. One thing is certain. The needs of the capitalist class will continue to clash with the needs of human beings. We have a choice. We can continue to accept the insanity of capitalism, or we can organize a socialist future. The time is now. Let us all go forward to build a global mass democracy to end the rule of the few and the misery of the many – because working people create all social wealth and have the right and the ability to produce it for the benefit of all. As long as the working-class majority does not believe in itself, it will accept the rule of the capitalist class. But as soon as that changes, capitalism will torn asunder. The working class will build a completely new society, a socialist society based on real democracy, solidarity and self-determination. In the battle between capital and labor, one must take sides. Which side are you on?