The articles in our May/June issue of Rally, Comrades!examine the revolutionary impact of the microchip. For the first time in human history human labor is being removed from the production process, making it possible for us to heal the devastation in the world and realize ourselves as fully human.
Under capitalism this technology has been used to reduce the mass of humanity to paupers, estranged in their own land. Unable to work, they are being thrown into poverty and desperation by the millions, condemned to travel the world looking for work, or to eke out a living on the world’s garbage piles and trash dumps. Globalization creates this new class of workers everywhere. The ruling class cares little for their plight, whether immigrant or native-born worker, whether in the U.S. or in the rest of the world. This new reality is the foundation for the uprisings across the globe, and the struggles to connect on the basis of a growing commonality of condition.
One such struggle, the international fight for public education, is examined in our cover article “NAFTA and the Politics of Transformation.” The article shows the extent to which NAFTA has facilitated the turning of public education from a social right into a commodity to be bought and sold on the market like any other commodity. The demand of public education as a right due to all echoes across borders, giving voice to an alternative vision of learning and culture, and drawing our class together in a common fight.
“Reconstruct Society on a New Basis” examines how the capitalist class uses its political control of the State to reshape society to facilitate the development of the qualitative changes in the economy in its interests. It shows that today, only fighting back against the effects of the system will not solve the problem. The struggle is to rid society of the cause of injustice and inhumanity – the struggle for the political power to reconstruct society. In this, consciousness is decisive.
But what would this society be? Is it even possible? “Sustaining Mother Earth: Abundance Beyond Capitalism” examines the process of historical development with particular attention to the impact of capitalism on the environment. The microchip and the robot replace labor, destroy the wages system and push those who are forced to work for a living outside the margins of society. Distribution according to need is the only solution. With fewer people needed to produce the means of subsistence, a cooperative social organization can unleash the creativity constrained by capitalism. It can redirect that productivity to heal the destruction of the earth.
“A New World: What the Future Holds” reviews many of the practical ways that technology now affects our lives. It can put us in touch with the world in a way we have never known, expand our horizons, and give us a greater appreciation of both our past and our future. It can improve our health, our standards of living, and can save us from hours of useless toil. It can free us up so we can enjoy the kind of society where we can embrace humanity as we never been able to before. Yet, it also shows that the way society is organized and ruled today stands in the way of the full realization of this promise, and that communism is the only practical solution to these problems.
“The Civil War: 150 Years and Still With Us” shows that the strivings for a different world have always been with us in the U.S., as it has been with the peoples of the world. Americans have fought for freedom and equality, but the content of that freedom and equality has always been about the pursuit of life, a life that shares equally in the abundance that society produces. Now, and perhaps for the first time, we are in a position to finally settle the question. Our vision: a communal cooperative society. Our cause: the abolition of private property.
The goal of all of our work today is to spread a vision of what is possible. It is a vision that satisfies the deepest yearnings of the people for peace. It is a vision of a world where no one has to fight another for the daily bread of existence. It is a vision where cooperation and fulfilling the needs of humanity are the guiding principles.
May.June Vol24.Ed3
This article originated in Rally, Comrades!
P.O. Box 477113 Chicago, IL 60647 rally@lrna.org
Free to reproduce unless otherwise marked.
Please include this message with any reproduction.
