If you were looking for a vivid description of our world at the beginning of the 21st century, you couldn't do much better than the following: "On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces, which no epoch of the former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman Empire.
"In our days, everything seems pregnant with its contrary: Machinery, gifted with the wonderful power of shortening and fructifying human labour, we behold starving and overworking it; The newfangled sources of wealth, by some strange weird spell, are turned into sources of want; The victories of art seem bought by the loss of character. At the same pace that mankind masters nature, man seems to become enslaved to other men or to his own infamy. Even the pure light of science seems unable to shine but on the dark background of ignorance."
The development of technology and industry advances at such a pace that we can do things that last year would have seemed inconceivable, never mind in a previous epoch. And the horrors and symptoms of decay have grown correspondingly: one only has to think of the fact that in today's world — in which three billion people live on less income together than the world's richest 300 — 30,000 children die each day from diseases that we have the resources to cure quite simply and quite cheaply. However, the quote isn't from a 21st century newspaper or radical journal, but from a speech that the German socialist Karl Marx made nearly 150 years ago at an event celebrating the fourth anniversary of the English Chartist movement's People's Paper.
Like the supporters of the Chartist movement, the Socialist Alliance is committed to fighting for a world in which industry and science are used, not for the purposes of designing new ways of enslaving and killing people and lining the pockets of a few billionaires, but for the benefit of all of humanity. We want a world in which industry and science are used to free up time for the development of our arts and our humanity, a world in which science can shine in the clear light of day rather than in the dark night of capitalist wars and occupations.
To start to get us there we need a socialist party for the 21st century. At its recent conference, the Socialist Alliance confirmed our commitment to building a united, mass socialist party capable of providing a home for all those willing to fight for such a world.
We affirmed our commitment to one person, one vote and to full democracy within our party. We are proud to say that in the four years of its existence, the Socialist Alliance has expelled no-one.
The Socialist Alliance now has 1200 members and 33 branches all over Australia. The Socialist Alliance is proud to count among its members militant unionists such as Craig Johnston, Chris Cain and Tim Gooden, and seasoned Indigenous campaigners like Sam Watson and Ray Jackson.
Just as Green Left Weekly carries forward the spirit of the People's Paper, the Socialist Alliance will carry the spirit of the Chartists into the 21st century, campaigning against capitalist war, for refugee rights, for civil liberties, for trade unionism, and above all for real, genuine democracy. If you share our ideals, there is a place for you in Socialist Alliance.
Alex Miller
[Alex Miller is a member of the GLW-Socialist Alliance editorial liaison board]
From Green Left Weekly, June 22, 2005.
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