For a social revolution

One of the successes of the capitalists is convincing us to accept the status quo as normal - inevitable even - and forgetting just how absurd a system it is. Inequality is at grotesque levels. 1% owned 40% of all wealth and the top 10% owned 85%. Meanwhile, the poorest 50 percent--half the world's population--own barely 1% of all wealth. It is impossible to justify such vast wealth when 800 million people go to bed hungry every night. This is getting to the heart of what is so crazy about capitalism, the gap between what is possible and today’s reality. Take food production. There's enough food produced in the world to make everyone fat, yet millions of people starve. The logic of the system is that the food must be destroyed rather than given away at a loss, or otherwise profits would suffer. When they say socialism will never work, socialists simply ask: Exactly how is capitalism working? With capitalism this is as good as it gets. But it's not enough to just hate the capitalist system. We need to believe a better world is possible.  A socialist world, is possible, not to mention necessary if we want to survive as a species.

One way to see the potential of a future society is to look at the workers’ movements of the past that have shaken capitalism. Another kind of society is possible. And the reason we can say this with certainty is a series of historical experiences of struggles and movements that have shown--if only for a brief time--what amazing things are possible when the working class take control of society. Most of the time, as individuals, we're powerless to control most things in our lives. This is often described as apathy, but it's a pretty understandable response. Everything changes when people get a taste of their collective power. Suddenly, politics become relevant in a way they never were before. There are countless examples to show that workers are perfectly capable not only of shutting down production, but also of running things for themselves.

Socialism can only be established on a worldwide level. Capitalism is international; no country today is economically independent from the world market and thus no workers’ government would have on its own all the resources needed to produce an abundance of goods. Socialism is premised on abundance, and worldwide there is an abundance of resources to take care of everyone. In a socialist society, we would have time to focus on the things that really matter to us. We'd also have the time and energy to actively participate in making decisions about how society is run. The communications technology and corporate media that is now used primarily to sell things and perpetuate the ruling ideas of capitalism could be turned loose under public control to facilitate the most widespread and varied debate. All borders will be open and all individuals, regardless of their country of birth, will be free to live and travel wherever in the world they please. And, eventually, all our existing borders and nation-states will fade away. Human solidarity will encircle the globe and conquer it. The state will wither away because it will cease to have any role to play. Who would need to be repressed in a society without exploiters and exploited? The government over people (military, police, courts, prisons) will be replaced by the administration of things (coordination of services, distribution of goods.) A classless society is possible is that the economic and technological potential exists today to produce more than enough goods and services for everybody on this planet — an abundance. It is impossible to overstate the importance of this point. All the enormous cultural changes can only proceed from a dramatic rise in society’s economic productivity, through the use of technology to produce more quality goods, more efficiently and more sustainably. Socialism cannot be created from will alone. For millennia, people have dreamed and fought for an egalitarian social order, but all such past movements were faced with the insurmountable obstacle of the material poverty of their society. No matter who was in power there was still not enough wealth to go around. A democratically planned world economy, even with today’s level of economic development, could guarantee a decent standard of living for everybody on the planet.

Imagine growing up in a world in which you've never known exploitation or oppression, nor deprivation, a world in which the needs of people and the planet come first. Imagine living in a world where you don’t have to worry about how you will pay the bills or whether you will still have a job next month. Imagine a society freed from capitalism’s straightjacket on technology and production.

The potential for exponential progress is truly amazing — a small mobile phone today can process more data than the most powerful computer on the planet 40 years ago. A society of abundance is completely reachable — but we can’t get there until we get rid of capitalism. Imagine if you can simply walk into a well-stocked community “store” and take what you need for free (you could take more than you needed by hoarding but the only impact this would likely have is that the store would have to restock its supply.) Imagine if the principle, “From each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.”