The American presidential election has come and gone and as always it was limited to a choice between the lesser evil of two candidates. Trump has prevailed. The Democratic Party alternative is now a non-starter. It is now time for the people to stand up and resist. But resist what? For a revolution to be any good, you have to be FOR something, besides being AGAINST capitalism. Any fool can be against capitalism. Some people are just against BIG capitalism.
Protest is a response or reaction to being repeatedly and deliberately ignored, bypassed and abused on many levels but one person's beef is another's side issue. Different emphasis are dependent on personal situations and viewpoints. 'There's strength in numbers' goes the old adage – but drawing disparate protest groups together under the same umbrella means first of all convincing those involved of how their particular 'issues' have the same underlying causes as those of the others and how they can all be resolved by coming together under this all-encompassing umbrella. However far removed the cut-and-thrust of one protest seems from another, traced back to their roots the fundamental they have in common is that they are fighting a system which determines outcomes by reference to a single measurement, that of the profit motive. It is this that results in the denial of sufficient representation, a lack of democracy in decision-making processes, and the failure of having dissenting voices heard. We can't just change things bit by bit, with different groups working in the areas that particularly affect them. This is precisely what populations have been doing for centuries. Winning a minor concession here and there only to have it clawed back before too long or in a roundabout way. Whatever gains have been made they have been vulnerable to being eroded. Endless strikes, walkouts, work-to-rule, picketing and protests have gained little long-term for the mass of workers worldwide. Each group has to face battle alone as sectors are threatened by or forced into wage freezes, layoffs or permanent unemployment.
The crux of the matter is the system of exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few. Big money and the governments uphold the system that supports the capitalists. The system does not allow space for meaningful involvement in major decision-making on a social level. Governments believe that cursory elections every few years authorise them to make all decisions on behalf of citizens. If it were possible to change the system piecemeal we would surely have seen the results by now – and we do see those results; we are now experiencing living under the changes we have gradually forged over generations – and they are an abject failure by most measurements. It is a proven wrong approach.
The World Socialist Movement calls for a leader-free global revolution. The people must capture legislative and executive control constitutionally and legitimately because this will assure mainstream support for the revolution. We never go back on our policy, we never betray our principles, we will never compromise. Our analysis of capitalism remains valid. The capitalist social system produces a mass of terrible problems; people suffer, deprived, suppressed, degraded and killed because of capitalism. And the solution to it all is the setting up of a Socialist commonwealth. The issue is plain. We can have capitalism, with its problems. Or we can build a new society of freedom and dignity. We can have capitalism or socialism and capitalism is incompatible with meeting basic human needs.
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