Our Society in Crisis: We Don’t Have to Accept This!
A Speak Out Socialists Public Meeting and Discussion
Below is the text of the talk that was given at the Bay Area event on August 16th:
Good evening, everyone, and thank you for coming tonight. We have a lot to discuss, and we want to start by addressing the situation we find ourselves in.
As we navigate this election season and the world around us, it can feel like each week is more chaotic than the last, as if a new movie script is being written every few days. We’ve witnessed an attempted assassination of Donald Trump, Hulk Hogan screaming and ripping off his shirt at the Republican National Convention in support of Trump, Biden and the Democrats pretending nothing was wrong with him, and then Biden dropping out of the race, endorsing Kamala Harris as his successor. All of this has happened in just over a month.
These campaigns and the parties they represent are two faces of the same system—one that imposes the capitalist order with a joyful smile, claiming it will address the problems it created and defend everyone’s rights as much as possible, protecting them against what Trump represents and the fear of losing what they call democracy.
The other campaign’s face offers to solve society’s problems through a narcissistic leader who will target anyone who doesn’t align with his values—values designed to secure his base and maximize his votes. He exploits people’s fears, both real and imagined, talking about criminals flooding across the border, the alleged murder of unborn children, teachers indoctrinating students, rising gas prices, job insecurity, and opposing everything that Harris and the Democrats have stood for over the past four years.
As people in this country and throughout the world witness the mass murder and terrorism against the people of Gaza and other parts of Palestine, the U.S. continues to send billions of dollars in weapons and military aid and even mobilizes U.S. troops in support of the criminal Israeli regime.
Despite claims by the Biden Administration and various economists that we have a “good economy,” the reality is that most workers are struggling to make ends meet. Working people are under assault on several fronts: wages are not keeping up with inflation, and essential social services are being slashed. In the face of a cost-of-living crisis, our consumption is fueled by increasing levels of credit card debt, now at the highest levels in U.S. history. Many young people who go to college to better their future graduate saddled with debt. The prospect of home ownership is out of reach for many due to record home prices and high interest rates.
We see our society deteriorating around us. As people confront greater economic problems and despair, the increasing economic divisions have led to higher levels of crime and violence, as some people are desperate to make ends meet. We also see widespread addiction and public drug use across the Bay Area, reflecting the instability and uncertainty of life today. These social issues are not new or unique, but their impact is becoming more acute.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has engaged in an extraordinary series of attacks on our rights, strengthening the power of the far-right and corporate interests. This year, among other actions, the Court ruled that U.S. Presidents can’t be prosecuted for actions taken while in office, supported local jurisdictions in criminalizing homelessness (which Governor Newsom has encouraged local authorities to implement), and ruled to undermine the authority of government agencies such as the EPA and OSHA in regulating environmental pollution and protecting worker safety.
The U.S. government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. It has left a wake of destruction in Afghanistan, destroyed Iraqi society, and still remains an occupying force. The Israeli war on Palestinians, as we have said, is being carried out with the support of Congress, which continues to approve billions of dollars to conduct the massacre and support Israel’s attacks on neighboring countries. U.S. troops are directly involved in armed conflicts and providing active military support throughout sub-Saharan Africa, as well as conducting massive military exercises in the South China Sea and in the Pacific as a threat to China.
At the U.S. southern border, there is intensified criminalization of migrants seeking refuge in the United States as they escape desperate political, social, and economic situations in Mexico, Central and South America, and many other parts of the world.
Our society is in crisis. And in response—what does Kamala Harris or Trump have to offer? They are vying to be the managers of the capitalist order with some differences in their approaches and which sectors of the economy they think should receive preferential treatment. Their only interest in us is to get our votes.
The Democrats and their allies in many mainstream media outlets tell us that Harris’s so-called youthful energy and sharpness will reinvigorate the Democratic party and the country, especially in contrast to Biden. The media that supports Harris focuses on the fact that she could be the first female president and the first woman of color to hold this office in a society deeply plagued by racism and sexism.
While her candidacy might be historic, she represents the same economic and political interests as Biden did. In her current role as Vice President, she has echoed the administration’s stance, offering little more than token protest of the number of civilian casualties in Gaza while continuing to support the flow of weapons. On immigration and border policies, Harris was made the border czar of the Biden Administration. She made headlines for telling migrants not to come to the U.S. unless they wanted to be detained and arrested, with no hopes of ever receiving some type of legal status to settle in the U.S.
For many who support Harris, her main draw is that she is not Trump and does not play on the divisions that exist in this society. She supports women’s rights to full health care, including the right to choose whether to get pregnant or not, and the right to bear a child. But, as we know, access to abortion, just as access to other medical procedures and health care, is not a protected right.
And when it comes to confronting the climate crisis, Harris and the Democrats claim to be defenders of the Earth’s ecosystems. But for them, the profits of the oil and gas companies come first. As a result, they have overseen record levels of oil production and opened up unprecedented amounts of federal land to fossil fuel exploration and extraction.
Trump’s popularity in some sections of the population is based on the belief that he represents a break from the status quo, epitomized by Harris and the Democrats. He seems to speak to people’s legitimate concerns and reflects and magnifies their fears about their economic situation, public safety, and overall insecurity.
He claims that his administration will bring back a safer and more stable life for his supporters. His rhetoric, demonizing immigrants and attacking those who oppose him, is supposedly in defense of the interests of his supporters, but it is really aimed at dividing the population based on race, gender, and national origin. And for him, women’s bodies are a political playground where the right to abortion and healthcare depend on what political winds are blowing at the state level. With respect to our climate crisis, Trump represents the perspective of climate denialism, echoing the climate deniers’ mantra calling for “energy independence” and “drill, baby, drill.”
The situation we find ourselves in is becoming intolerable for many. The issues affecting our lives cannot be solved by politicians whose job is to manage the system that is the source of those problems.
Both major political parties—Democrats and Republicans—were built to serve the interests of the wealthy and powerful, not working people. While they may differ in their rhetoric, they exist to maintain the capitalist order, defending the interests of the wealthy, owning, and exploiting class. Neither party can address the systemic issues driving the current crisis.
Our challenge is to do more than be aware and horrified, or hold our nose and vote, and hope that this time the consequence will be different. We face the challenge of bringing about the changes necessary so humanity could live in a just and sustainable way. We must take matters into our own hands. This means organizing, mobilizing, and building collective power to challenge the forces driving us into deeper crises. We have the capacity to effect change, but it will require us to come together and take decisive action.
We believe there are possibilities ahead. There have been many periods and moments of collective action. We only need to look at the last few years to see hope and a different way forward. A little more than four years ago, many of us took to the streets in response to the murder of George Floyd. In the past year, millions of people around the world mobilized and continue to show their solidarity with the Palestinian people.
These are examples of how ordinary people can begin to come together to challenge the oppression carried out by those who run our society. But these movements or moments are not enough to effect real change. When we are demonstrating our anger, in reality, we are speaking to one another, showing that we are not alone and reinforcing our solidarity with one another. We are not speaking truth to power—those in power already know the truth.
We must figure out how to build sustained, long-term efforts to achieve the change we need so that these explosive protest movements with so much potential don’t die out without achieving deeper change. As conditions deteriorate, there will continue to be more responses, and there will be possibilities for people to form their own organizations and not wait on the authorities to find solutions. There is much to do today as we build links with others and deepen and broaden our understanding of what we are up against.
That is why we in Speak Out believe we don’t have to wait for mass movements to erupt to be active. As we look to the future, our central goal is the building of revolutionary organizations within the working class that can bring about real change and mobilize the social power of the working class, which makes everything in our economy function. The growing discrepancy between wages and wealth and the growing political crises internationally are signs that the system is not working for the majority of people.
We have seen glimpses of what this could look like. While tightly controlled by union officials, the UAW strike last year and the threat of a Teamsters strike at UPS helped to spotlight the potential economic and political power that workers have in our society. We even heard union officials saying that we are in a class war and we need to mobilize our forces. As a result of this and other budding forms of organizing in workplaces such as Amazon, there are increasing numbers of workers in our society looking for ways and perspectives to resist their oppression.
When workers come together, they can begin to feel and experience their power. However, we must be careful not to fall into the trap of seeking quick fixes; real change will require sustained, long-term efforts. But as we engage in today’s struggles, our confidence in our ability to change our situation can grow rapidly and open new possibilities.
While the situation may seem grim, we must avoid falling into a doom-and-gloom perspective. Instead, we should see this moment as an opportunity to take action. We all have a role to play as activists and organizers.
We believe the actions that we take can have an impact and change the world.
So with that, we look forward to hearing from everyone as we discuss this tonight.
