A Better World

There has been discontent, unrest, protest and movements for democracy and against austerity across the globe. These movements have been a strong expression of anger and address concerns about the lack of democracy, social justice, and dignity. Modern society is a system based on private property and dominated by the capitalist mode of production with the aim to create surplus-value. People are being socialised into passive producers and consumers. Today’s democracy has broken all its promises and the progressive liberal political parties have been reduced to piecemeal reform of capitalism. But even this palliative policy has become problematic as capitalism has developed into a more global system where state interventionism becomes more and more difficult. International free trade agreements and institutions such as the IMF restrict what an individual nation can do and not do. Transnational corporations are powerful players in domestic and international politics.

Unless humanity breaks through the denial that there is no alternative and that this is the best there is we face dim and daunting days ahead. Capitalism is an economic system in which trade, industry, and the means of production are controlled by private owners with the primary goal of making profits. In capitalism, people are not considered important unless the market potential makes them important. We want a new and better future. Socialism is the worldwide ‘movement of movements’ driven by an awareness that the multiple crises we face are fundamentally caused by an outmoded economic system in need of wholesale transformation. But this is what we still lack - a truly unified fusion of movements that comprises the collective actions of an engaged working class yet this is our greatest hope for bringing about world socialism. We are fighting for a different kind of world, one in which folks stand united in which we dare to see the humanity in each other. Cynicism is the greatest enemy we face in our struggles, even above and beyond the terrors of oppression, because it saps us of the energy we need to actually change our circumstances. We cannot simply wait for the implosion of the capitalist system and expect the socialist utopia to arise spontaneously from its ashes. We can build upon the cooperative and empathetic values if we struggle against those who aim to exploit and systemize our more anti-social attitudes.

If you don’t own the means of production you can never turn them to your advantage. We want a world where we produce things for need, not for profit; for use value, not for exchange. We cannot achieve that without a political challenge to the capitalist class. If we look at ourselves, we find we are not as selfish and calculated as the ideologists of capitalism would have it. We often forget that the vast majority of people know deep down inside that the world is unfair that a few have too much and most have too little. What stops them from taking action to remedy the problem is rarely the lack of knowledge but instead a lack of hope. They feel that capitalism, inequality, and injustice are inevitable. The idea that to struggle for a better world is naive, and that if the system were to collapse, a far worse tyranny would appear. Hasn’t that been the evidence of the past? Not only should we argue that human beings have the capacity for good and evil and people aren’t always cruel and vicious, but we must emphasise that the negative side of our behaviour was not when social order broke down, but when order and the State was restored.

The capitalists who would pit us against each other via the construct of the labour market. Leaders don’t unite us, instead, they incite us one against the other. Leaders don’t respect us, instead, they deceive us. Leaders don’t help us, instead, they corruptly fill their own coffers.

We are set to enter a period for unprecedented change. The world needs to change and has to do it fast. Climate change and environmental degradation war, and economic inequality are key problems the global community currently faces. How can we create participatory workplaces that make decision-making more democratic and equitable? To imagine a better economic and political system is a necessary step in making it happen. It seems impossible to deny that our current global capitalist system has created, and prevents us from fixing, the mess we are in. Primarily this is due to the power of the profit engine of capitalism, which in turn incentivizes the externalisation of as many costs as possible. The owners of capital are driven to make ever greater profits -- the system rewards those who do and punishes those who don't -- which of course leads the profit seeker to reduce costs in any way possible. To survive, capitalists must try to avoid paying for the negative consequences of whatever is the source of their profits, be it the instruments of war, environmental destruction, global warming, over-consumption or an unhealthy food system. Protecting and maximising profit gives capitalists the motive to deny the ill effects of its production methods. Few governments will pass laws that may negatively affect profits which is the source of what some call crony capitalism, but which is, in fact, a logical outcome of a system that promotes greed and private profit. The reality is that governments are run by and for the rich.

But what sort of social system can be imagined which will save us from global warming and growing inequality; one that can come about so that weapons are turned into ploughshares? We refuse to see this one truth: we need a new economy. It is time to come together and build a better system, one that promotes environmental sustainability, equality, and cooperation. For change to happen peacefully it must be popular, supported by most people around the world. That, in turn, means the new system must ultimately be more democratic because the most popular system is one in which most people feel they have a stake and share in.

Socialism aims to create new, free, collaborative economic relationships where the technological tools are owned by everybody and used for everyone in a cooperative way. The World Socialist Movement plans a planetary cooperative and a better world of the future.