This article is the editorial for issue #18 of Communist Revolution. Subscribe here or order copy of the new issue in our store.
The philosopher Hegel said that what is rational is real, and what is real is rational. But today, reality seems completely irrational. If you read the newspapers, it is easy to come to the conclusion that humanity has lost its mind.
Side by side with hunger, disease, and widespread poverty, there is opulence, luxury, and waste on a grand scale.
While there is an urgent need to repair health and education systems, build housing, and take action against the climate crisis, those in power devote society’s wealth to making bombs, developing glorified chatbots, speculating in cryptocurrencies, and extracting even more oil and gas.
And while we feel powerless watching the systematic extermination of an entire people live on our phones, those in power fuel that massacre with weapons, money and political support.
Young people in particular are sensitive to this state of affairs. While older generations may remember a past when capitalism was able to offer a tolerable life for a relatively large segment of the population, a young person entering college this fall was born as the Great Recession of 2007-2008 was unfolding.
Militarism and wars, growing social inequalities, a political system dominated by billionaires, racism and sexism that show no signs of improving, global warming that is making life increasingly intolerable: the future facing young people is truly dystopian—without even the cool aesthetics of science fiction films.
Yet no one has any real solutions to offer the younger generations. Politics is a circus and politicians are clowns. Stupidity and mediocrity are now part of the hiring criteria for leading a political party.
And while the right blames immigrants and wallows in conspiracy theories, the left buries its head in the sand.
Everyone is looking away from the elephant in the room: capitalism. But what could result from a system based on the pursuit of profit by a small number of billionaires other than inequality, corruption, tyranny and environmental destruction?
There is a saying that the purpose of a system is what it does. This is particularly clear in the case of capitalism. The economy is controlled by a handful of huge monopolies, banks, and investment funds, all under the control of a thin layer of billionaires who organize society to maximize their profits. The exploitation of the majority (the workers) by the minority (capitalists) constitutes the essence of this system.
Anyone who seriously wants to put an end to this state of affairs must therefore recognize that the solution lies in overthrowing this economic system. As long as the economy remains controlled by billionaires, there will be no hope of seriously addressing the urgent problems affecting us. The dictatorship of the capitalists must be replaced by a democracy of the workers. A revolution against the billionaires is needed.
Such a revolution cannot be led by amateurs. This social class—the bourgeoisie—has more than a century of experience in governing. It has learned to maintain its system by all kinds of means—through manipulation, “divide and conquer” tactics, systemic corruption, or by force if necessary. It will not leave the stage of history on its own.
Our only hope is to form a party prepared to root out these parasites. Such a party—a communist party—cannot be improvised overnight. To be a communist is to recognize the need to organize to overthrow capitalism, and to set about this long-term task with determination.
But the good news is that such a revolution does not rest entirely on our shoulders. Everywhere we look around the world, the masses are rising up on their own accord. In recent years, mass movements have taken place in all corners of the world, from Kenya to Bangladesh to Serbia.
Such an uprising is inevitable here too. We must be ready to lead it to victory when it comes.
Old Hegel was not crazy. What he meant was that what is irrational is destined to become unreal—to die. What is irrational today is not the world, but the economic system that rules the world. It just needs a little push.
