Saturday, May 09, 2020

Is world socialism a pipe dream?


Will out of this calamity come a better world? The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown us something that most of us have known for a long time, there is something wrong with our system. Yet it’s almost like we all have  Stockholm Syndrome, defending a society that lack compassion and that put us all at risk. But we have learned to stand in solidarity with those who are currently deliver essential services— health workers, sanitation workers, people working in shops.

The Socialist Party hope that somehow this global health calamity might lead to a better world. More importantly, after all the misery, we need and must work for a better world. The pandemic has made clear the oneness of the peoples of the world. Seen from space, the Earth has no borders. The spread of the coronavirus is showing us that what we share is much more powerful than what keeps us apart. All people are inescapably interconnected, and the more we can come together to solve our problems, the better off we will all be. One of the side effects of COVID-19 is feeling more compassion for others. Humanity can work together to prevail over this pandemic and discover the folly of battling with each other. The coronavirus demonstrates the mutual global dependencies of the world’s peoples. Its demanding that  resources be redirected for the service of health and peaceful life. The overriding goal must be human security: providing food, water and a clean environment and caring for people. But governments continue to waste the opportunities to create by fueling the destructive arms race. 

We should recognise the value of collective social relationships. We’re brothers and sisters must think and act cooperatively like one family. While the global pandemic has put everyone at risk, the most vulnerable are the elderly, the ill, the unhealthy, the economically distressed, the inadequately housed and the homeless, and the minorities. But none of us is safe. Wealth and power can only confer a certain level of protection. We can now consider the type of society we wish to emerge post-pandemic. Governments favour a return to the status quo, the restoration of the old order that existed for the benefit of a tiny minority. Socialists see the potential for transformations’ that would lead to greater equality and better well-being for the majority. It is our chance to do things differently. Social change is possible. A different world, a different economy can be the future.

We must become one world or prepare ourselves for the end of our civilisation. This virus  threat can be overcome through genuine cooperation and solidarity among all the people of the world. Why not work cooperatively to save humanity from massive global death and economic collapse rather than waging wars and slaughtering one another. The same intensity with which mankind has practiced war through the ages must now be applied to building a peaceful and prosperous planet. We can create a new and better world—but we must fully commit ourselves to it and work for it. We need a mighty movement to transform the World. Can we build a movement of movements?

While our attention is fixed upon the pandemic, the planet continues to warm – polar ice-caps melts, glaciers disappear, forest fires and droughte appear,  seas rise, plant and animal species disappear and people continue to be displaced. Socialists hold a vision of a saner, healthier, and a cooler world.


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