A World to Win or a Planet to Lose

We all live under capitalism. It operates in every country all over the globe without exception. It is the capitalist system itself that is the basic cause of nearly all the problems human beings face all over the world: homelessness, misery, mental illness, violence, greed, envy, general dissatisfaction and war. No one person or group of persons is at fault for this, however. No blame can he attached to individuals personally. It is neither the rich man’s fault nor the poor man's fault. It is the fault of the system itself. The crux of the problem revolves around ownership. But not just personal ownership on a small scale, like one person owning a coat or a washing machine or a car. These are relatively unimportant. The problem is larger, yet quite simple to see. In other words, we are talking about the ownership of factories, transport, offices, mines, machines, tools, energy resources, raw materials. And we all depend on these means for food, clothes, warmth, shelter, travel and entertainment. In short, we depend on them for life itself. The problem at present lies in the fact that these means —which we all need to live — are owned and controlled by a small minority of the world’s population, which means that the rest the vast majority are dependent for their livelihood on this minority. Desperation and despair are by no means uncommon in the world today. The problems of starvation or malnourishment are rife in capitalism. For every tragedy, there is someone with a proposed palliative—a protester, a reformer, a counsellor—who are often described under the derogatory label of “do-gooder”. No matter how sincere or genuine they may be, “do-gooders are blind to the fact that every city slum and every mental hospital ward the problems are inter-connected; they have a common root and can be eradicated only by attacking that root. Capitalism is responsible for so many of the illnesses common to-day, either directly as their cause or because funds are refused for research into their origins and possible cure. Capitalist society cannot eliminate the stresses and strains which are responsible for many of today’s illnesses, nor can all the resources necessary to cure such illnesses mend the damage done by capitalism.

People around the world are experiencing a descent into chaos and uncertainty. There is a crisis of humanity. The level of global social polarization and inequality and is out-of-control as capital accumulates ruthlessly. Scapegoated communities are under siege. The ecological system is fast reaching several tipping points. Given capital's impulse to accumulate profit and to commodify nature, it is difficult to imagine that the environmental catastrophe can be resolved within the capitalist system. Capitalism is like riding a bicycle: When you stop pedaling, you fall over. If the capitalist system stops expanding outward, it enters a crisis and faces collapse. "Green capitalism" appears as an oxymoron, as capitalism's attempt to turn the ecological crisis into a profit-making opportunity. Social inequality is exemplified by gentrification, gated communities, surveillance systems, and state and private violence. The privileged few avail themselves of privatized social services and conspicuous consumption. They can work and communicate through internet and satellite sealed off under the protection of armies of soldiers, police, and private security forces. Global capitalism holds wages down everywhere. The global working class is the increasing "new precariat" which refers to workers under unstable and insecure labor relations – informal employee contracts, casualisation, part-time, temp-work, and zero-hour contracts. As communities are uprooted everywhere, there is a rising reserve army of immigrant labor. The global working class is becoming divided into native and immigrant workers. The latter are particularly attractive to transnational capital, as the lack of citizenship rights makes them particularly vulnerable, and therefore, exploitable. The capitalists only hire us when they need to increase their production (first of all by taking on more workers on the same machinery, by round-the-clock shifts, before taking on more workers on more machines) on condition of meeting a solvent market with a sufficient rate of profit. Outside particular sectors (seasonal work, construction, etc.), they don’t need any incentive to hire or fire, except when the productive cycle is falling or weakly recovering, as is the case at the moment.

Capitalism sets worker against worker and whips up wild nationalist sentiments, deceptively trying to associate the interest of propertyless workers with that of the owning minority. Scapegoat minority groups are singled out to be blamed for capitalist problems. Capitalism breeds racial hatred. Nationalism and racism makes the task of socialist unity much harder. A humanity divided against itself cannot organize to create socialism. A humanity linked by solidarity, friendship and respect can do just that.  The revolutionary route is now well signposted. The job of the Socialist Party is to speed the process, and not the impossible task of trying to make wage-slavery more palatable. The reformers have had their day and there is nothing to show for it. The time for the change to Socialism is long overdue and we urge you to work to that end. It is no longer utopian or unreasonable to expect that society should be able to provide the basic needs of people.

Neither gods, nor masters, nor states, nor bosses