by Stephen Von Sychowski
Communist Party of Canada, Prince George Collective.
Are you tired of watching jobs disappear all around you? Are you tired of watching the social services, labour unions and rights that the people of Canada fought so hard for disappearing? Tired of the liars, cheaters and thieves in government, and their corporate friends getting rich off your work? There is an alternative! It’s called Socialism.
What is Socialism?
Socialism is an economic and political system in which the people as a whole own the means of production. This means that the products you make and the funds generated by them all go to the people as a whole. The process by which this is achieved is called nationalization.
What’s the difference between Socialism and Capitalism?
There are numerous differences between Capitalism and Socialism. In Capitalism the means of production i.e. factories, natural resources etc, are owned by a tiny minority in society. They hire workers to do the work for them, but they keep most of the profits. This means that a few people become very rich and the rest stay relatively poor in comparison. In Socialism there is no single owner of the factories, resources, banks etc. As a result there is no one person collecting all the profits for him/her, this means that they are more fairly distributed between all the workers. Each person is paid fairly for the work they do and according to what their needs are. Since the majority of money is not in the hands of a few individuals there are also more funds with which to provide universal health care, education, and all the other necessary public services.
But isn’t the N.D.P a Socialist party? Look at the mess they made!
This is a very common misconception. Some people will tell you that the N.D.P is a Socialist party, or that Britain currently has a Socialist government. THIS IS FALSE!
These people will say that the Socialists want to create a “welfare state” and that the N.D.P in Canada or the Labour Party in Britain are Socialist because they believe in Nationalization of some big industry and they believe in public welfare systems. The truth is that these parties have lost any Socialist beliefs they once had long ago. They only wish to put a pretty face on Capitalism, to make it seem as if it is friendly to its people by providing basic (and usually inadequate) services such as health care and education. And even these services were only given to the people of Capitalist countries after years of pressure from their people. And now even these services are being eliminated by policies of Privatization that are being adopted by the leaders in the Capitalist countries.
So Socialism won’t create a “welfare state?”
No, it won’t. This is because under Socialism all people have equal rights regardless of sex, skin pigmentation, disability, sexual orientation, appearance and religion. This includes the right to jobs. Under Socialism having a job is a right, and because the profit of a few private individuals is not the driving force of the economy, more jobs can be created. A goal of Socialism is to provide work for all citizens who are capable of working. Therefore the welfare system becomes almost completely unnecessary.
But isn’t Socialism a dictatorship?
That couldn’t be further from the truth; in fact Capitalism is more of a dictatorship than Socialism. In Capitalism all political and economic power is held by a tiny minority of people in our society. These people are the Capitalist bourgeoisie, or the “upper-class. All the biggest political parties in Canada are led by this upper-class in favor of the upper-class. And the upper-class corporations rule the economy. They say that we have freedom because we have elections but you can bet that even if the majority of Canadians voted for a Socialist party, they would use all forces possible to stay in power despite the will of the people. In Socialism everything including the governing body of society is owned and run by the people, there is no elite class to elect therefore the working class (majority) of people run the country through the government in the favor of the majority of people not in the favor of a small elite group.
So why do we always hear such bad thing’s about Socialism?
That’s because the education system, the media, and of course the government is run by the ruling class Capitalists. They don’t want you to know the truth because it is a threat to their power. So they make up lies, or they manipulate the truth to be suitable for their causes. It’s been the trick of Capitalist governments ever since the beginning of the struggle between Socialism and Capitalism.