We are going to win

"Our planet, our society, and we ourselves are built of star stuff."—Carl Sagan

Sometimes it is difficult to imagine alternative ways of living and organising. Capitalism is not the only system there is. It’s not inherent within us. It isn’t some inevitable expression of predefined human nature. It was developed by human beings and so human beings can change it. But in order to get there, we first have to engage in thinking about real change.

Capitalism equates wealth with success, which is then equated to virtue e.g. rich people are good, poor people are bad, therefore poverty is a moral failing of the person and that if we can’t be rich, there is something wrong with us and we deserve to suffer the consequence. We are programmed from birth to believe in the moral philosophy of competition, individualism, the virtue of material consumption, and social status determined by the wealth hierarchy. They tell us that it is people of merit who rise to the top of the system. We are told that those with the most money deserve to have power over the rest of us. Accumulation of money and property is seen as the be all and end all of life. Capitalism promotes the idea that selfishness is rational and efficient. Capitalism turns people and natural resources into commodities in order to attract more capital. That’s its sole purpose. The capitalists use a culture of indoctrination as the means of ensuring we remain submissive, docile and obedient. There is no conspiracy other than the logic of capitalist thought selling us false ideas.  We are told that as the rich get richer the rest of us will get richer too.  We are told that we can solve global poverty if rich countries give more aid to poor countries. We are told that our governments are democratic. They tell us that our media is free, honest and impartial. But we know that these are lies. Education and the news are so heavily filtered and propagandized that it bears little resemblance to any truth.

The World Socialist Movement challenges the capitalist belief-system and points to another way of living. We seek to make our future and create the better world we know is possible, where there is no 'I' or 'you', but only 'we.' I am another you and you are another me. We are all one. I am in you, and you are in me. All of humanity is just one. And all 7 billion of us are all variations of the same. We are different manifestations of the same yet in our details our diversity is endless. Socialism is where no one is excluded.

The WSM sign-posts the first steps on a journey to more connected communities. We are on the side of the people who are willing to fight back. Socialists do not resign ourselves to the fate we are told is inevitable. We are people who refuse to continue as wage-slaves. We are people who know we are human beings. We understand that unless it is stopped, capitalism may kill everyone and everything on the planet. If we don’t change our direction we’re going to wind up in a world of ecological collapse and  social collapse. It’s essential for all of us to look ahead and ask, ‘What kind of world do we want to have? What’s the personal contribution we can make in bringing such a world about?’

A new world  will only arrive when people begin to want it and start to build towards it.