Capitalism. A System of Injustices

 

A handful of capitalists control the world’s economy and make vast profits on the labour of the working people and the natural resources of the planet. All the major means of production - the factories, forests, farms, fisheries and mines are in the hands of a few corporations and several hundred capitalists who lord over huge personal fortunes accumulated from the backs of the working class. Capitalism is a system of exploitation. A handful of parasites live off the backs of the workers and could not care less about their situation. This is how they come to pocket billions in profits. Every bit of the capitalists' vast wealth was stolen from the working people. The capitalists get rich from the fruit of our labour.

Working people make up the overwhelming majority of the world's population. But in nearly every country they are the oppressed majority, labouring to support the luxury of a handful of exploiters. More than 800 million people are on the verge of starvation, while the gap between rich and poor is widening. The problems of capitalism - exploitation, the anarchy of production, speculation and crisis, oppression and the whole system of injustice - arise from the self-interest of the tiny group of monopoly capitalists

At the end of the week, a worker collects their pay and the capitalists and their flunkey economists claim this is a fair exchange. But it is highway robbery. In reality, workers get paid for only a small part of what they produce. The rest, the surplus-value, goes straight into the hands of the capitalist class.

The bosses get rich, not because they have "taken risks" or "worked harder," as they would have us believe. The more they keep wages down and get fewer workers to do more work, the more they can steal from us and the greater their profits. If the bosses think they can make more profit somewhere else, they just close their factories and throw the workers out on the street. Capitalism is a system of international exploitation and investing their capital abroad, as "transnational" corporations. They penetrate foreign markets and plunder the natural resources of developing countries. They also attempt to dominate other countries politically and to a degree militarily. This international exploitation brings enormous profits for the big corporations and wretched lives for the people of the developing world.

Capitalism is a system of economic anarchy and crisis and is plagued by periodic economic crises, such as recessions, which are becoming more serious and complex. It is the very nature of each business to try to maximise its profits. Economic crises are aggravated by speculation, hoarding and other schemes of the bankers, financiers and industrialists. Each tries to profit in the short run, but their individual greed eventually throws the whole system into turmoil, leading the working class and people to suffer. This anarchic system wastes a great deal of social wealth. Capitalism is an obstacle to the further advancement of the material well-being of society. It is unjust, wasteful, irrational and increasingly unproductive. In the face of economic crisis, capitalism has always tried to put the burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of working people. It has tried wage freezes, social contracts, cuts in benefits, increases in taxation, cuts in expenditure on health and education, and bail-outs to business. For working people the future is less and less certain. Wages fall or remain stagnant while hours increase and working conditions deteriorate.

Capitalism means an insecure and uncertain future. People live in misery so a small number of very wealthy individuals can live in luxury. The idea that everyone can get rich under this system is a lie invented by the rich themselves. Under capitalism, the only way to get rich is to trample on someone else. There is only room for a few capitalists - at any time the great majority must work and be robbed.

The elderly and the disabled are also treated unfairly. The elderly toil their entire lives, but after retirement, they lead lives of fear and worry. Capitalism has no regard for its senior citizens; once it has squeezed the working life out of the workers they are tossed away. The capitalist society also callously mistreats disabled people because everything is geared to the drive for profits. For the young, access to higher education is becoming increasingly restricted.

This exploitative and oppressive system, where profit is master, has choked our entire society with economic crises, political reactions and social decay. The drive for profits holds thousands hostage to hunger and want; it has poisoned the very air that we breathe and water that we drink; it spawns cynicism and violence, substance abuse, and crime.

This is why workers have only one choice: either submit to this wage slavery or fight it.

Capitalism has created the economic conditions for socialism. Today the whole system of production is socially interdependent, but it is controlled by private owners. In place of private control of social production, there must be common ownership if society's problems are to be addressed.

Socialism will be won through the political power of the working class. Having overcome the capitalist class, the working people will take over the economic forces developed by capitalism and operate them in the interests of society. Socialism will be a better society, one which will present unprecedented possibilities for the improvement of common peoples' lives. Because working people will control the great wealth they produce, they will be fundamentally able to determine their own futures. The end of exploitation of one person by another will be a resounding liberating and transforming force. Socialism will not mean government control. Today we often hear of government control or intervention as "creeping socialism". But the State serves the interests of the ruling class.

The economy will be planned to serve human needs rather than simply profit and luxury consumption by the rich. This will release the productive capacity of the economy from the limitations of profit maximisation. A great expansion in useful production will occur. Rational planning will replace anarchy and will aim at building an economy that will benefit the people. With socialism, goods and services will be distributed on the basis of from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. Transforming productive enterprises from private to common ownership will allow workers to manage democratically their own workplaces through workers' councils and elected administrators, in place of the myriad of bureaucrats and management consultants today. In this way, workers will be able to make their workplaces safe and efficient places that can serve their own interests as well as society. Socialist democracy would be far broader than what is possible today because the voices of the people would be heard, not simply those of the rich.