Capitalism Must End

Today we are faced with multiple interrelated crises, for example the threat of catastrophic climate change or equally catastrophic thermonuclear war, and the threat of widespread famine. These threats to human existence and to the biosphere demand a prompt and rational response; but we are failing to take the steps that are necessary to avoid disaster.

A serious weakness among activists in movements for social change has been a lack of understanding of the true nature of the system they live under. Instead of naming capitalism as the problem activists often use vague populist terms like “the 1%,” “the rich,” “banksters,” or “greedy corporations.” But the problem runs much deeper than the corruption of any particular individual or institution. It lies in the structural foundation of the entire way of life that currently dominates the globe. This is an integral part of Socialist Party’s function; to educate people on the complex and long history of capitalism. We need to understand how it works and what the nature of the crisis is and the nature of the different moments that it passes through so that we can identify its vulnerabilities and weaknesses. We ask ‘What’s the labor theory of value?’ and say of those militant protesters ‘How can you call yourself a socialist if you don’t even know what the labor theory of value is, one of its basic concepts?”  The labor theory of value means that the exchange value of a product is based on the socially necessary amount of labor power that is generally required to produce it. But under capitalism, one of the key ingredients is surplus value. And under capitalism, the buyer of labor power — the capitalist — appropriates the surplus value generated in the process of commodity production. But theoretical clarity for its own sake is pointless intellectualism; instead, it should be a guide for action. Mastering Marxist political economy is tough enough. But putting it into action is even harder.

One increasingly urgent reason to abolish capitalism is its prominent role in harming the planet. Capitalism possesses an inherent growth imperative. This means that the normal functioning of capitalism is causing water shortages, polluted oceans, destroyed forests and ruined depleted topsoil. But even if the pending ecological catastrophe weren’t upon us, capitalism would still need to be dismantled because it’s based on exploitation. There’s no reason why the social result of production needs to be in private hands and that only a few people should own what everybody produces.

Critiques of capitalism have entered the mainstream debates, with Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century and Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate as notable examples. Both authors, however, approach capitalism from a reformist stance and hold up social democratic versions of capitalism as viable alternatives. For sure, it is worth defending the social safety nets and more enlightened views on environmental issues. But it has to be kept emphasized that capitalism, in whatever form, is inherently destructive because it converts the natural world into commodities. And it’s inherently exploitative because profit always comes from the exploitation of workers. It doesn’t matter if you give them healthcare or a higher salary; you’re still exploiting them for private gain.

The problem with Piketty and Klein is that regardless of intention are complicit in promoting the supremacy of capitalism which remains unchallenged questioned.  They no matter how reluctantly only offer a framework that exists within the system. Their debate has to be inside that framework. Nothing can exist outside. It is not unlike when Thatcher said, ‘There is no alternative. It’s hard for people to imagine that there could be any alternative. People think this is all there is. This is the only way humans can behave. Capitalism is natural. The level of political consciousness within the working class is very low. And that didn’t happen by chance. It is by design and it’s by indoctrination and conditioning. The capitalists and their representatives in government are adept at finding new ways to squash and tamp down threats to their control. So the socialist movement has to keep evolving our tactics as well. The Occupy movement provided a glimpse at what’s possible. It made people realize they can rise up and take collective action. It was very inspiring to people for that reason. It made people feel good that they weren’t alone and it showed the potential of what could happen. But Occupy also was a learning experience. It expressed the discontent, it showed the weakness and the need to be stronger. But if we’re actually going to go up against the system, it can’t just be a spontaneous gathering of a bunch of people. It has to be organized — planned and strategic.

Many are pessimistic about the prospect of a socialist revolution, probably with a certain amount of justification, and they know that eradicating capitalism is a long shot. But it’s our only shot. The reason that socialists are politically active is because there’s nothing else. The only other alternative is to give up, surrender and submit to a slow death for ourselves and our planet.  When we accept things the way they are we’ll end up in a worse situation. If a person really understands what’s going on, he or she cannot stand idle. It’s a matter of human dignity and it becomes part of our historical social responsibility to try and change things. Accepting things the way they are would mean allowing 10 million children under the age of five to die annually because, under the normal functioning of global capitalism, it’s not profitable to save them. It would mean continuing to accept racism, which has always been central to capitalism’s divide and rule manner of domination and control. It means the acceptance of capitalism’s expansion and the unremitting accumulation of capital.

We should never forget that we are potentially stronger than they. We outnumber them. But equally important, we have right on our side.