An editorial by one of our younger Red Youth members. As the following shows, with Marxism to enlighten them, even school students are capable of understanding those basic truths about the present economic system that somehow seem to elude whole battalions of erudite professors.
Are you tired of the same old lies and bound-to-be-broken promises we are being subjected to during this showcase of ‘western democracy’? Are you sick of the pitiful facade that the mainstream parties are kindly putting on for us in order to try and convince the country they are the best party to do the job of hiding the real cause of the financial crisis: capitalism? You’re not the only one.
However, as the general election approaches in Britain, more and more people seem to be falling for the Labour party’s patronising ‘For the people’ rhetoric. It seems that an awful lot of people have been hoodwinked into thinking that a vote for Labour is a progressive vote, while a vote for the Tories is a vote for more austerity and privatisation. That idea is partially correct, of course – the Tories will bring more austerity and privatisation.
But the key point for us to understand is that so will a vote for any of the main capitalist parties, Labour included, because they all serve the same class and follow the same one-point programme: to preserve the profits of the capitalists and the system of capitalist exploitation at all costs! The only real way the parties differ is in the extent to which they hide their true intentions and how they present themselves to the people.
As polling day draws nearer, it’s sickening to see so many people who really should know better allowing themselves to fall for the media hype and actually start to consider voting for the Labour party – a party that has been proved to do nothing it promises as far as working people are concerned (promises to the billionaire exploiters are another thing entirely, of course!)
It’s not like a ‘labour party’ to launch a succession of predatory wars for profit and domination against independent nations on the pretext of lies and distortions – killing millions of innocent civilians in the process. It’s not like a ‘labour party’ to totally dismantle hard-won public services such as the NHS through the implementation of PFI schemes and the construction of ‘foundation hospitals’.
It’s equally sickening to see so many people considering voting Conservative. “We’re all in it together,” claims David Cameron. Are we really? Is that why last year the richest 1,000 people in this country saw their wealth increase by a staggering £28bn — the equivalent of £77m per day, or £893 per second? Is that why 1,000 people (0.00001 percent of Britain’s population) own more wealth than 40 percent of all Britons combined? David Cameron is either a complete imbecile or a natural, born liar.
And yet, who can blame these deluded voters? It’s not their fault that they’ve been subjected to a constant barrage of bourgeois politics by the capitalist media, haranguing them from all sides to take part in some ‘real democracy’.
“Oh, but it’s not the same sort of democracy they have in Syria or Zimbabwe … that’s ‘bad people’s’ democracy.”
Capitalism only accepts democracy if those elected are funded by large corporations whose interests they’ll then work to protect when in government. Capitalism only accepts the type of democracy whereby the best liar gets elected.
The truth is there is no such thing as true democracy under a capitalist system. The ‘real democracy’ that Russell Brand and others like him think they can muster up out of wishful thinking and thin air is contradictory to the inherent laws of capitalism.
Capitalism has only one motive and that is to protect the interests of the super-rich whilst constantly indoctrinating the rest of us to be submissive servants. No matter how hard the likes of Russell Brand and Thomas Piketty try to tell us that capitalism can be made good with a stern telling-off, capitalism will inevitably lead to obscene amounts of inequality and never-ending war. Sorry lads.
But don’t get depressed people; we don’t have to live under this system forever. There is an alternative! It may not be very PG-13 and ‘diplomatic’ in its implementation, but it’s the only solution.
That solution is revolution. We’re not talking about a one-off march or a bit of angry anarchism; we’re talking of an organised, armed overthrow of the capitalist system. We’re talking of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
We’re talking about collectivising the ownership of all society’s main resources so that all production in this country can be planned to meet the needs of the people and not simply carried out to satisfy some greedy capitalist’s lust for profits.
True democracy and freedom means equal opportunities for all. It means job security, adequate housing and free education and health care for everyone. It means the integration of communities and cultures. It means acceptance and equal treatment of all races, genders, creeds, sexual orientations and religious beliefs. It means an end to war and the domination of other nations.
It does not mean voting for the party that can lie to us the best at election time (with the help of endless corporate media spin) and thereby convince us that they are going to be able to save both capitalism and the people.
Sick of the election hype; of career politicians and their lies? Don’t get mad – get even. Join the struggle and together we will turn our anger into an unstoppable force for socialist revolution.