Homelessness – being without a home, without shelter – is not simply a temporary hard time, or a symptom of individual failing. It is indisputable proof that the capitalist economic system cannot provide for the needs of the people, and that the ruling class, in its defense of this system of private property, is unfit to determine our future.
3.5 million people in America are homeless in any given year. Almost a million people are homeless in any given week. Almost 40% of the homeless are children under 18. The majority have acute and chronic health problems and no provision of healthcare to help them. Sky high rents, rising prices and low wages have driven even those who are working into homelessness. Experts admit that the reality is much worse, with probably millions more living under the statistical radar: in cars, on couches, and if still holding on to their homes, only a paycheck away from the street.
As jobs are eliminated through robotics and automation, it is becoming impossible to find work, or even a job that pays a living wage. There is nothing else to do but distribute these basic necessities according to need rather than ability to pay. History has charged revolutionaries with the task of teaching the people this truth.
The article, “Living on the Edge in Silicon Valley,” shows the polarization of wealth and poverty that homelessness represents. In this center of advanced technological development and research, thousands cannot afford a place to live, or to put food on the table. At the same time, the government guarantees that corporations enjoy tax breaks and public subsidies, further eroding the tax base. Draconian austerity measures gave rise to the largest homeless encampment in America, covering 68 acres and providing shelter for hundreds of people, until the police bulldozed it down.
The same processes throwing millions out on to the streets are discussed in the article “Health Care: All of Us of None of Us.” The article shows how the government has used the Affordable Health Care Act to pave the way for the massive restructuring of health care in the interests of corporate control and profits, while millions in America cannot even afford to see a doctor. It shows that the struggle for health care is merging with other struggles for basic necessities such as homes, water, and higher minimum wages, into a struggle for power for the class as a whole to gain their survival.
“The Meaning of the Ukraine Crisis” shows that the same process that is driving the American working class into homelessness, is the same process that is driving the U.S. toward war. As much as homelessness is inevitable in a capitalist system where there is no work, war is inevitable in a system where no one can buy. Robotics may eliminate labor, but it is highly productive. In their scramble for markets to sell these products, the world capitalist powers are increasingly coming into conflict. The U.S. must isolate Russia to control and contain China. War is objective. It is entangled as instrument of policy so much so, if that policy is going to be put forward, war becomes the inevitable means of developing and implementing that policy.
To win, our class know the solution and have a strategy to get there. “Strategy, Tactics and Private Property,” shows how the radical nature of the new technologies is putting an end to the capitalist system. The rulers have put a fascist system in place to protect their power and property. Revolutionaries must teach the people that their future lies not in defending what they once had, which was limited at best. It lies in fighting for the society that is possible – where everyone has a home, the wherewithal for a decent life, and where the future of humanity is assured.
We can take heart from the struggles of those who went before us. “From the Editors,” marks the continuity with our American and international revolutionary history. It is up to us to take humanity that last step. As the article says “What we do matters. We can win. We must win. We shall win.”
May/June 2015 Vol25.Ed3
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
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