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Socialist
Party
USA:
Statements |
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-May
Day
2010
Passed
by
the
Socialist Party National Action Committee April 2010
Socialism – An Idea Whose Time Has Come!
“Ideas,”
someone
once
wrote, “move rapidly when their time comes.” As we
gather to celebrate May Day, the continuing capitalist crisis makes
socialism an idea ready to move rapidly. While the banks have
received trillion dollar bailouts, working people still face mass
unemployment, state and local budget cuts and deepening personal
debt. Capitalist crisis has made the socialist vision of a world
where human needs are put ahead of individual profits even more
relevant. Our task on May Day is to convert socialism from a good
idea into a movement to transform our society.
Capitalism
Exposed
The
recent
economic
crisis was more than a banking crisis or a housing
price bubble. It was a demonstration that there is a fundamental
problem at the center of capitalism. That problem lies in the
nature of corporations themselves. Noam Chomsky once described
corporations as “unaccountable private tyrannies.” There is no
democracy inside of a corporation and, as a result, there is no
democracy on our worksites. Corporations are undemocratic entities
created only to make profits from exploiting the labor of
workers.
The
undemocratic
corporate
model now also dominates American
politics. A corrupting system of campaign donations and lobbying
ensures that both Democrats and Republicans serve the interests of
corporate America. When corporate profits declined, politicians
began handing out trillions of dollars in public money to them.
When these same corporations fired millions of workers, neither
Democrat nor Republican attempted to stop them.
Socialist
Solutions
Socialism
offers
an
alternative to undemocratic profit-mad capitalism. By
ensuring that people’s needs for housing, healthcare, education and
employment are guaranteed, a socialist society will offer equality of
opportunity. By bringing democracy to the economy through
worker’s control of production, we will make sure that the place where
most people spend their adult lives operates democratically. By
organizing participatory budgeting, we will put people at the center of
the system – fully empowered to make decisions concerning the future of
the society they live in.
The
powerful
necessity
of socialist ideas can be seen most clearly with the
issue of immigration. The capitalist state presents restrictions
and police actions as the proper way to keep immigrants in line.
Conversely, socialists support the rights of all workers regardless of
their status. We support the creation of an unconditional amnesty
program and seek to build solidarity amongst workers throughout the
world. Where capitalism offers ICE raids and the Border police,
we support human freedom and social solidarity
May
Day-
Our
Day
May
Day
is
our day. A day when trade unionists, anarchists and
socialists gather to state clearly that another world is
possible. This other world is a democratic participatory one,
where resources are shared for the betterment of humanity.
However, democratic socialism will not come about spontaneously – we
must get organized. So, today we invoke the names of Eugene Debs,
of Cesar Chavez, of Dr. Martin Luther King to call on all working
people to join the struggle for socialism. Move rapidly, act
boldly, we have a world to win!
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