Alongside this social destruction, corporate profits are skyrocketing, climbing to their highest share of national income in 64 years. Further, the U.S. government-having merged with corporate interests to guarantee maximum profit for the corporations-is now debating how to help Wall Street, not how to provide places for people to live.
The reality is that the laws of capitalism mitigate against providing housing or any other human necessity to those too poor to pay for it. The question is: how do we revolutionaries create a situation where the workers are fighting with the understanding that the system-not some individual or some particular party-is the source of the problem? Until the system is seen as the problem, a powerful movement for fundamental change cannot occur.
The first step is to uncover why the masses of people, under conditions of hunger, homelessness and a lack of health care, are still loyal to the capitalist system. To address this question, we have to look back in history. After World War II, the United States gained supremacy over most of the world. The ruling class gave part of the plunder back to the American people as a "payment" for their political and military support. This allowed for millions of workers to purchase houses and automobiles. The workers understandably felt they had an economic stake in the capitalist system. To back this up ideologically, the myth of the "middle class"-and the idea that anyone could make it if they worked hard enough-was introduced. In reality the concept of the "middle class" has simply been used to cover up the real class lines in society.
Times are changing. Today, automation is the underlying factor creating havoc in every aspect of the economy, including the housing and job market. It is automation-under capitalism-that is putting formerly productive workers in the soup lines and homeless shelters. Further, to remain competitive globally, America is now becoming-in the language of a corporate trade newspaper-the new "low wage country." American Axle's success in forcing their workers to accept draconian cuts in wages is just the latest example.
How do we bring the understanding of the system as the problem to the people so that they can fight in their own class interests for housing and other necessities? What we have in our favor is that people are getting active around their basic needs. In the housing arena, alongside people's demand for housing now, the government is steadily gobbling up mountains of vacant real estate-commercial buildings, investment properties, land, multifamily and single family homes, condominiums, mobile homes, farms and ranches. These properties are put on the market by the government as investment opportunities for the banks and real estate interests. But they could and should be turned into public property and distributed to those who need them! On the basis of this kind of fight, the people can be taught that the capitalist system must be overthrown. In its place, a whole new cooperative society can be born.
From the
Editors
Those of us who seek fundamental social change are engaged in a battle to win the hearts and minds of the people. This can't be done without a revolutionary press. Every month, the People's Tribune strives to bring our readers the stories of those who are struggling to move forward in a world where corporate power is threatening to crush them. Along with those stories, we try to offer some strategic perspective to help put the struggle in context and point the way toward victory. We need your help to continue doing this. The People's Tribune gets no grants and has an all-volunteer staff. We rely completely on subscriptions and donations from our readers to enable us to go on telling the truth. Please donate whatever you can. See the subscription/donation form at the bottom of this page. You can also donate using Pay Pal on our web site, http://www.peoplestribune.org.
Those of us who seek fundamental social change are engaged in a battle to win the hearts and minds of the people. This can't be done without a revolutionary press. Every month, the People's Tribune strives to bring our readers the stories of those who are struggling to move forward in a world where corporate power is threatening to crush them. Along with those stories, we try to offer some strategic perspective to help put the struggle in context and point the way toward victory. We need your help to continue doing this. The People's Tribune gets no grants and has an all-volunteer staff. We rely completely on subscriptions and donations from our readers to enable us to go on telling the truth. Please donate whatever you can. See the subscription/donation form at the bottom of this page. You can also donate using Pay Pal on our web site, http://www.peoplestribune.org.
