Global
capitalism is the 800-pound gorilla. The twin ecological and economic
crises, militarism, the rise of the surveillance state, and a
dysfunctional political system can all be traced to its normal
operations.
We need a transformative politics from below that can
challenge the fundamentals of capitalism instead of today's politics
that is content to treat its symptoms. The problems we face are linked
to each other and to the way a capitalist society operates. We must
make an effort to understand its real character. The fundamental
question of our time is whether we can go beyond a system that is
ravaging the Earth and secure a future with dignity for life and respect
for the planet.
The best science tells us that this is a do-or-die moment.
We are now in the midst of the 6th mass extinction
in the planetary history with 150 to 200 species going extinct every
day, a pace 1,000 times greater than the 'natural' extinction rate. The
Earth has been warming rapidly since the 1970s with the 10 warmest years
on record all occurring since 1998. The planet has already warmed by
0.85 degree Celsius since the industrial revolution 150 years ago. An
increase of 2° Celsius is the limit of what the planet can take before
major catastrophic consequences. Limiting global warming to 2°C
requires reducing global emissions by 6% per year. However, global
carbon emissions from fossil fuels increased by about 1.5 times between 1990 and 2008.
Capitalism has also led to explosive social inequalities.
The global economic landscape is littered with rising concentration of
wealth, debt, distress, and immiseration caused by the austerity-pushing
elites.
Take the US. The richest 20 persons
have as much wealth as the bottom 150 million. Since 1973, the hourly
wages of workers have lagged behind worker productivity rates by more than 800%. It now takes the average family 47 years to make what a hedge fund manager makes in one hour. Just about a quarter of children under the age of 5 live in poverty. A majority of public school students are low-income. 85% of workers feel stress on the job.
Soon the only thing left of the American Dream will be a culture of hustling to survive.
Take the global society. The world's billionaires control $7 trillion, a sum 77 times the debt owed by Greece to the European banks. The richest 80 possess more than the combined wealth of the bottom 50% of the global population (3.5 billion people). By 2016 the richest 1% will own a greater share of the global wealth than the rest of us combined. The top 200 global corporations wield twice the economic power of the bottom 80% of the global population.
Instead of a global society capitalism is creating a global apartheid.
Firstly, the "egotistical calculation" of commerce wins the
day every time. Capital seeks maximum profitability as a matter of
first priority. Evermore "accumulation of capital" is the system's bill
of health; it is slowdowns or reversals that usher in crises and set
off panic. Cancer-like hunger for endless growth is in the system's DNA
and is what has set it on a tragic collision course with Nature, a
finite category.
Secondly, capitalism treats human labor as a cost. It
therefore opposes labor capturing a fair share of the total economic
value that it creates. Since labor stands for the majority and capital
for a tiny minority, it follows that classism and class warfare are
built into its DNA, which explains why the "middle class" is shrinking
and its gains are never secure.
Thirdly, private interests determine massive investments
and make key decisions at the point of production guided by maximization
of profits. That's why in the US the truck freight replaced the
railroad freight, chemicals were used extensively in agriculture, public
transport was gutted in favor of private cars, and big cars replaced
small ones.
It's left to us as a society to think about what the real
character of the system is, where we are going, and how we are going to
deal with the trajectory of the system -- and act accordingly. The
critical task ahead is to build a transformative politics capable of
steering the system away from its destructive path. Given the system's
DNA, such a politics from below must include efforts to challenge the
system's fundamentals, namely, its private mode of decision-making about
investments and about what and how to produce.
What is certain now is that without democratic
control of wealth and social governance of the means of production, we
will all be condemned to the labor of Sisyphus. Only we won't have to
suffer for all eternity, as the degradation of life-enhancing natural
and social systems will soon reach a point of no return.
It is apparent that the author of the above has not yet discovered the World Socialist Movement, for that, I believe, is what he is looking for. His writing reinforces the fact that there are many individuals and groups out there seeking a genuine and realisable alternative to capitalism. The easy part is pointing out the many ills of the capitalist system; more difficult passing on the message that there really is a feasible, workable system just hovering in the wings awaiting the day when enough of us shout for world socialism NOW.
Join us in spreading the word and hasten the day for a capitalist-free world in common.
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