Saturday, July 11, 2020

Let's Keep Organising


Billionaires keep telling us how wonderful society would be if only the rich people ran the system. They point to their philanthropy and their charitable foundations. For poof they indicate the success of their corporations. If instead of crying crocodile tears about inequality, Gates and Buffet really wanted to be the conscience of capitalism, they’d be all about breaking up the centralisation and concentration of economic power. The diminished influence of the trade unions has led to reduced bargaining power for the workers has created an angry working class vulnerable to authoritarian demagogues peddling scapegoats, racism, and xenophobia. Politicians put corporate interests ahead of working people.


The COVID-19 pandemic is a worldwide catastrophe that has killed more than 500,000 people around the world.
Global climate change continues. There is presently a heat wave in Siberia.
The United Nations reports that hundreds of millions of people face starvation because of a global food shortage.  Other reports say “the coronavirus pandemic is set to push half a billion people into poverty and is expected to double the number of people facing acute hunger to 265 million.” Global wealth and income inequality continue to grow. 
Populist regimes are expanding their dominance in many countries. Other nations are verging on authoritarianism or are on the edge of tyranny.
 We are experiencing a snowball effect from the pandemic and then the economy and then the food crisis. The threats are dire. Between the hunger, the wars, plagues, and locusts, it’s beginning to look like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have ridden into town. These multiple crises have exposed the failures of the economic system.
While the average American faces the possibility of economic ruin, the very rich have used the pandemic crisis to capture even more wealth. The American plutocracy have enriched themselves by 20 percent, or a reported $565 billion, during the coronavirus pandemic. 
The willingness to sacrifice human beings — especially the sick, the elderly, and those who are otherwise vulnerable - is demonstrated by the premature relaxation of lockdowns and social distancing. It is not just that profits come before people, but that people must now be placed on the sacrificial altar to protect profits.
If we continue with capitalism the lives of billions of people are at risk.  We resist because we must resist. We  must do what is necessary to save ourselves, our families, all of humanity, no matter how desperate the odds or hopeless the situation. 
We must change everything we know. We have it in our power to begin the world over again. World socialism is the post-pandemic alternative. Our choice is between a future that’s ecologically sustainable or one that is profit obsessed. Even though the evidence is evident that the market fails us and the planet and tweaking this system isn’t good enough most people remain convinced that there is no alternative society. They do not recognise the need for a new people-centered economics that does not maximise profit but the maximise the well-being of humankind and nature.
The World Socialist Movement needs more and more of us join us in this so-desperately-needed revolution. What happens in revolutions is that new people step forward, motivated by the actions of others
Let’s seize the time!

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