WHAT ANARCHO-SYNDICALISTS BELIEVE:
Why do we oppose capitalism and the
state?
We oppose capitalism and the State because they are
tools used by the ruling class of bosses, military leaders and top
government officials to exploit and rule the rest of us- the working
class, the poor and the working peasantry. These structures will
never create freedom, they must go.
WHAT IS CAPITALISM?
We live in a capitalist society. Capitalism is an economic system
in which bosses compete with each other to make profits.
Capitalism is usually based around the wage system. The bosses and
top government officials own and control the means of life: the land,
factories and so on. The rest of us - the working class- don't.
Therefore we have to work for the bosses for a wage and/or pay them
rents, taxes etc. This is the situation in South Africa.
Sometimes capitalism operates slightly differently. It takes over,
or even re-established pre-capitalist forms of labour control. For
example, establishing slave plantations in the USA before the 1860s,
or turning African farmers into peasants growing cash crops for the
market. All of these labour systems are dominated by the broader
capitalist system- profit & money. They are linked to it through
trade or labour supply.
WE HATE CAPITALISM
We are fundamentally opposed to the capitalist system:
*capitalism is based on exploitation. The wages we are paid are
always less than the value of the goods we make. The surplus produced
goes to the bosses and rulers as profit. We do the work, they take
the credit. This results in poverty as the rich get rich by stealing
from the poor.
*capitalism is authoritarian and undemocratic. At the workplace,
the bosses make all the decisions in their own interests; the worker
majority has no real say. Poverty, long hours etc. all act to make it
difficult for the workers and the poor to be active in politics.
*capitalism puts profit before people. Capitalists have goods made
so they can make a profit so goods only go to people with money. This
means that although there is definitely enough food to feed everyone,
many starve because the they do not have money.
*capitalism is inefficient and wasteful. The bosses do not plan
production to meet needs. Instead, they have goods made and hope that
they can sell them. If unsold, they are thrown away.
*capitalism promotes ruling class values like greed, aggression
and a thirst for power, instead of values like mutual aid and
solidarity.
*capitalism is a primary cause of oppression, racism and
environmental destruction. Racism was created to divide workers,
justify genocide, slavery, colonialism and the super-exploitation of
Black workers under apartheid-capitalism.
WHAT IS THE STATE?
By the State we mean the army, police, government departments and
parliament. It is a centralised, heretical (top-down) bureaucratic
structure of rule over a country.
ABOLISH THE STATE?
The State is a direct result of the fact that we live in an
unequal society. In South Africa, 5% of the population own 85% of all
wealth, 120,000 capitalist farmers control all the land in the
historically "White" areas, and 5 companies own 80% of all shares on
the Stock exchange.
The State exists to defend the ruling class minority at the top of
this system, if not by persuasion then by force. This is true of all
States, whether or not they call themselves capitalist, socialist or
democratic. Wherever you have a State, you have the rule of a
privileged few over the exploited many. The State protects capitalism
and the all the veils that accompany it. When workers strike, they
are attacked by police- who ever heard of a boss being arrested for
paying low wages?
The State is built to allow this minority to rule over the working
and poor majority. It has a top-down structure that concentrates
power in the hands of the few at the top. There is no way that
ordinary people can participate in the running of this apparatus. Its
structure makes it inevitable that all States lead to the few ruling
the many.
This means that real change cannot come through elections.
Instead, we can only win reforms through mass struggle against
capitalism and the State. We must defend all political freedoms, but
at the same time boycott elections and rely on people power and mass
organisation to win. This is the way to win gains like better pay,
and also the way to defeat both capitalism, the State and all
oppression- and establish a free stateless socialist society
(anarcho-syndicalism).
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