A New Year?

On behalf of the Socialist Courier blog, we send greetings to the world’s working peoples for the New Year 2015, wishing them success in the struggle against capitalism in the coming year. Happy New Year to all comrades and friends in the spirit of working class solidarity.

People all over have been victims of attacks the like of which they have rarely experienced. The recession affected every part of our society. Every day still brings in fresh reports of business failures and bankruptcies, strikes and lock-outs, wage-reductions and cuts in working conditions and—as the most natural, though most terrible result—increased suicides. Looking at these facts, the anticipations for the New Year would seem anything but cheering. But it always the darkest before dawn. If there were no remedy for these crushing social evil the outlook would indeed be black, full of doom and gloom. But, fortunately, there is a remedy; though no one person can apply it alone and that cure is socialism! The future can be ours.

2014 wasn’t exactly what you’d call a peaceful year. Wars were fought in people's villages towns, and cities. We hope we’re wrong about this but we confidently predict that many on-going wars will still continue in 2015 and that new conflicts will arise. Many are already simmering. Others are temporarily off the boil and sitting on the back-burner. There’s some hope that a few wars might end but in many cases that’s a tenuous hope at best. Wars are murder on a massive scale. War and military spending is hardwired into capitalism.

War didn't used to look like it does today. It did not used to be the case that 90 percent of the dead were non-combatants, or as they say, collateral damage. We still talk about "battlefields," but there used to actually be such things. Wars were arranged and planned for like sports contests. Ancient armies could camp next to an enemy without fear of a surprise attack. Enemies negotiated the dates for battles. War's history used to be one of ritual and of respect for the "worthy opponent." Sneak attacks were not engaged in, not because nobody had ever had the idea, but because that just wasn't the done thing for what a warrior to do.

Today the gloves are off. Despite all those Geneva conventions on the rules of war and international war crime legislation, war is nowadays organised mass killing sprees. The astronomic spending on wars and preparations for could end starvation in the world, provide the globe with clean water for all, etc. Governments could have saved millions of lives but chose to kill millions instead. Billions budgeted for death and not for life.

At this time of the year, when “Happy New Year!” is on everyone’s lips, in the midst of all the well-wishing, let’s be thoughtful and consider what the prospects and promises are for this new year, if 2015 is to be, for the working class, a truly happy one. We face another new year of struggle in conditions where the socialist cause is only beginning to revive after receiving setbacks and where confusion and disunity still afflict us. The coming new year will be a time when the fortunes of capitalism can hardly be expected to take a turn for the better, and indeed may well take a turn for the worse, so hopefully opening up new opportunities for an advance in the socialist case.