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Yogi Berra said:
"The
Future Ain’t What it
Used to
Be"
By DEL CASTLE
Let's look at that future.
The
first thing to be noted is its forked. We are at a turning point requiring us to
make a choice of forks. One fork,
sponsored by Bush corporatism leads to "12 more years of antiterrorist
warfare" as predicted by Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, and all its
consequences in terms of lower living standards at home, more tax cuts for the
rich, more national indebtedness to foreign countries, more threats of
environmental destruction, more corruption, more political, economic and social
confusion, all of which threaten democracy. And we can include military
incompetence unless we resort to weapons of mass destruction. And that is not
entirely guaranteed if push comes to shove in a world gradually being submerged
in whirlpool of irresponsibility.
After that, take a
deep breath and look at the other fork -the left, or blue fork, if you will. The
left fork leads to all the things the overwhelming majority of the
public, both here and abroad knows we need
First, the opposite of above, a higher living standard all around. That means a free union movement released from
government antiunion laws and regulations, a vast, much needed public works
environmental and infrastructure repair program that would provide millions of
jobs at good wages, a firm commitment to worldwide peace through empowerment of
the United Nations, social welfare programs that guarantee a livable life for
the less fortunate and elderly among us, a thoroughly full democratic commitment
to racial, gender and minority equality, laws to curb corporate power and
corruption, a much needed strengthening of public education at all levels
including college level at no tuition, a thorough commitment to scientific
principles as the only proven path to truth about reality and our relation to
it, relief from credit card greed, a right to leisure and creativity. More
issues could be mentioned, but the above are enough to present the overall idea.
You
may say the left fork is all well and good but how do we make the turn? The
answer is at hand, but making it is the hard part. The answer is a fundamental
change in the whole system., economic, political and social.
No easy task as revolutions of the past have so tumultuously shown. The
old system fights tooth and nail and in a thousand ways to preserve the status
quo.
We
could say just pass the necessary laws, change the old and enforce them.
That would be possible if our political system weren't so corrupt.
Moneyed lobbyists, obsolete
congressional rules and foggy media distortion leaves that path pretty
well closed off.
What
is required basically is a people's movement to demand change and the courage to
carry through. Fortunately, since
the beginning of the Antiterrorist War, such a movement is being born.
The demand for withdrawing our troops from
Iraq
, and an increasing demand for impeachment of Bush, together with all the
various opposition movements on the internet and elsewhere are swelling the
ranks of populist upsurge. If it
continues, it will raise the political consciousness of the population to a
point of no return.
The
choice then comes to what new system to choose?
If we take a close look at the alternatives, we see some form of
socialism is the only answer. Socialism
is the only existing system offered. It
has been around since about 1850 when the Communist Manifesto was published by
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In
other words, it has more historical standing than any other.
Fascism, of much less historical standing is now seen as just another
form of corporate capitalism.
But, you say, communism failed in the
Soviet Union
and is therefore a1 failed system. But
the fact of the matter is that socialism did not fail in the
Soviet Union
, Stalinism failed. It did a lot to save he world from Hitlerism.
But that was done by the Russian people, not Stalin tyranny.
When it came down to a choice by the world's people, they
chose what they believed was democracy, however deformed in modern
industrialized countries.
Our country is uniquely situated to combine socialism and democracy arising
out of our historical commitment to democracy and our willingness to try new
ways of solving old social problems. Discarding the old, beginning with the
revolution of 1776, is an American tradition. American form of socialism can be
democratic, free, creative and a true liberation of the creative abilities of
the people. It can give us, and the
world by example, everything people everywhere have longed for.
It is the fork that leads to true humanity. It will be based upon a true
Communist goal: "From each according to ability, to each according to need*
If the change comes, it will have to be done by the will of the American people,
not by force and violence; although, as is well known the corporate powers will
not yield peacefully.
Of course many raise the objection that the term "socialism" is a
turnoff. That may be true.
But the important thing is to gain the substance regardless of the term
used. We could call it "social
regulation," a "peoples government," or "New
Americanism," or something similar. But,
as Deng tsiao Ping the sponsor of the new Chinese economic policy said: "It
doesn't matter what color the cat is as long as it catches mice." As the
new
U.S.
economic policy develops it develops, it will find a proper name.
Long
live the peoples' cause!
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