Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance has created a new zine called Another World is Possible. Let’s Build it Now! It covers a number of issues important to young people today including ecosocialism, racism, feminism, LGBTI liberation, education and class.
Below is an extract from the zine. To get a full copy, email resistancenationaloffice@gmail.com.
***
For many young people today, the situation certainly looks grim. Increasing waves of neoliberal attacks are leaving our communities devastated. Our friends can barely feed themselves, our families are being kicked off welfare, and our neighbours are losing their jobs and their homes.
We are all reeling from the most recent attacks by the Coalition government, but we know that this is just the latest in a long line of conservative governments bent on attacking ordinary people, the poor and the vulnerable.
The global situation does not look much better. The idea that the 21st century would be a century of peace and development seems to be fading into the myth that it is. Powerful nations continue to foment violence and extremism across the global south, as poverty and serious social crises do not seem to be solved, simply moved from one place to another, from Greece to Nigeria to India to Colombia.
In times like these, it is hard for many people to actually dream of something better. In our daily struggles, it can all become a blur, another attack, another campaign, another dead-end, another march around the same old route. It can be difficult in the midst of all this hard work to actually dream bigger, to dream of what worlds might be possible. We need to learn how to dream big.
First of all, one needs to make the call that this is not the best of all possible worlds. That despite what politicians and journalists might say, we are not as well off as we are told. The world could be a whole lot better than this, and things are looking to get worse, not better, unless we put a stop to the political, economic and social crises that afflict our communities and our world.
Second, we need to take another step, and recognise that if this is not the best of all possible worlds, then a better one is indeed possible.
In fact, looking around us, we see that it is possible by using existing technology to build a world in which every person is well fed and housed, is given access to healthcare and education, clean water and cultural life. Such a world is possible, even living within the sustainable limits of the Earth’s natural metabolism.
Resistance call such a society socialism. Put simply, socialism is where the vast majority of people have a direct say over how the economic life of society will be run, and they do so in the interests of all. It is about democracy, inclusion and sustainability.
However, such a society will not just happen. Socialism, to quote the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, does not drop fully formed from the sky. It needs to be built. Indeed, we need to start building it now.
Building an ecosocialist movement
To build a society that puts the planet before corporate profits will require a mass people’s movement. It can’t be done through the courts or parliament as we know it.
A small number of people locking onto bulldozers and mining rigs by itself won’t be enough and we can’t rely on our arguments backed up with the world’s best science to convince those in power.
Free market solutions like a carbon tax will just allow corporations to find ways of profiting from carbon emissions and will fail, as the disaster of such a scheme in Europe demonstrates.
It requires building a new system, one that is based on the collective power of workers, students, farmers, indigenous people and oppressed nations, as common custodians of a shared biosphere.
Feminism: It’s over when we say it’s over
One of the central messages both women and men receive from political and media ideologues is that women’s liberation has been won, that women should be happy with what they have got.
We are told that the formal equality that women have won in some sectors, in a tiny minority of nations, means that there is no need for such concepts as feminism, that those calling for more equality should be happy with what they have and just get on with working hard towards that corporate job or management position.
The oppression of women has its roots in the origin of class society, of which capitalism is the current version. The oppression of women is vital for capitalism to survive, which makes sexism systemic, not just a problem of individuals.
The fight against sexism is intertwined with the struggle against all forms of oppression and exploitation, and ultimately, against capitalism. That is not to say women should just wait for the end of capitalism to end their oppression. Women are integral in the fight against class society and we must always be conscious of discrimination, even after a revolution.
Who is Resistance?
Capitalism does not offer young people a future. A world plagued by war, environmental destruction and economic inequality is not the sort of world that young people can expect to deliver a bright future.
It is because of this that we seek to organise young people to fight back against the injustices of this system. Young people have often been the detonator, the spark that leads masses of people into the struggle with their innovation, their courage and their daring. We need a generation of activists who take politics seriously and are committed to changing the world, not just standing on the sidelines.
Resistance: Young Socialist Alliance is the youth wing of the Socialist Alliance. We lead the Alliance’s youth and student work, organising alongside university, TAFE, and high school students, as well as young workers and young unemployed people.
We are made up of Socialist Alliance members aged 26 and under, and we elect our own leadership and democratically develop, discuss and debate youth and student statements and policy.
To join Resistance contact us at facebook.com/youngsocialistalliance