Our Hopes

At the beginning of each New Year people around the world express their hopes and desires for seemingly elusive peace and goodwill on Earth. The people speak but the political leaders do not hear. 2015 should be the year that we seriously begin to ask ourselves what kind of world do we want to live in. Some may adopt the opinion that change will be positive but let us not forget that the most significant gains are being made by right-wing parties: in Britain UKIP received 27 percent of the popular vote, in France, the National Front pulled 25 percent of the vote, in Italy, the Five Star Party 21 percent, in Austria, the Freedom Party took 20 percent of the vote, and in the Netherlands, the Peoples Party won 13 percent of the vote.

In 2015, we hope for a collective epiphany around the world where peoples’ needs replaces the business requirements of the global corporations and that in every community across the world, people continue to build bridges and discover common ground faster than those with other ideas which can divide and conquer us. In the coming year, we hope that humanity's collective consciousness reaches a point of critical mass wherein the majority of people begin to truly comprehend the reality of where the capitalist system has brought the planet, regarding climate disruption.

We hope the socialist movement continues to grow and builds its influence in the face of neglect or even smears from the media. As we move into 2015, our hopes are high that the new year will bring more work done in the spirit of social transformation, and that more and more ideas that have long been seen as too radical are recognised as being fundamental to both our liberation and salvation. In 2015, we hope that, as a society, we all become increasingly conscious of the ways in which all of us are imprisoned: by narrow thinking, harsh laws and repressive social norms, in violent structures, and the limited notions of "justice". Our hope is that together, we will get free. There is hope in our activism and that we  continue to find the courage to confront the rich and powerful, the corporations that bleed the world dry of natural resources and pollute the planet for their own profit and hope for continued strength to carry on the struggle against the bought and paid for politicians doing the bidding of their wealthy masters. Our own power is in our numbers.

Lastly, our simple hope for 2015 is that we be guided by socialist principles and solidarity.