The East Coast and half the US are recovering from the monster Hurricane Sandy, called a “Frankenstorm.” It was twice as large as Hurricane Irene a year ago. People are amazed that the question of human-caused climate change has not been addressed. Neither President Obama nor Republican Party candidate Mitt Romney have addressed the urgent need to pull humanity back from this catastrophic brink. Half of Manhattan Island sat drowned and dark, with only the Goldman Sachs building lit — a fitting symbol of the time we’re in. Meanwhile, ordinary working people by the millions, including the poor and homeless, suffer the brunt of this latest extreme weather catastrophe.
Why aren’t the powers-that-be rallying to solve this looming and soon-irreversible climate crisis that is imperiling the planet and all life on it, including human civilization? Is it only a question of the unwillingness on the part of politicians and other people in power? Or is the capitalist system itself — and its profit-making corporations —incapable of solving this?
Under capitalism, corporations must make profits. That is their only function. Any benefit they provide is secondary. They pollute, plunder, murder, destroy the oceans and poison the air, and change the global climate forever. They allow millions of people to fall into dispossession, poverty, and homelessness as long as they make their profits and take care of their billionaire class.
Corporations will struggle to the death —and the death of the planet — to make their profits. That’s how capitalism is structured as an economic system. A new social system compatible with the nurturing of life, balance, creativity and true sustainability can only be one that is cooperative, communal and truly democratic. It must be ruled by and in the interests of the majority of the people. We must get the power to institute a political and economic order that turns this around.
Though the politicians of the two major political parties, bought and paid for by corporate interests, are silent on the subject, the people of the world are organizing in their communities and globally. They are demanding a livable environment and a future for humanity and the planet.
The struggle for what we need to survive and thrive –- to live a full creative life in harmony with this beautiful planet –- is for a transformation of our economic and political system. It is for a system that will share the abundance of the earth according to need and abolish want and disease. This is the only system capable of healing the planet. It takes as its model the planet itself, which stays in balance in order to provide for all life.
Capitalism with its exploitive profit motive is deadly to life and the planet that sustains it. It is time to evolve to one compatible with life — a cooperative society. Our first step is to organize a powerful movement to take over the corporations.
