What’s next after USSF?
FIGHT FOR SOCIALISM

Workers World Party extends warm greetings and solidarity to the thousands of progressive activists from around the country and the world who are gathering in Detroit for the U.S. Social Forum.

Perhaps you are a young person wondering how to pay for your education or if you’ll ever get a job. Or maybe you’re a senior whose pension has been ripped off by the company where you toiled for many years. Or you’re a laid-off or low-wage worker trying to provide for yourself and your family on no or diminished income. Or you have no health insurance and can’t get the medical care you need.

Maybe you’re sick of union busting, plant closings and layoffs, and the mass unemployment that has destroyed so many lives. You wonder why education and health care are so expensive, why schools and hospitals are shutting down or being privatized when the need is so great for the services they provide.

Perhaps you’re a woman fighting attacks on reproductive rights or worrying about how to pay for child care and provide for your children. You’re struggling to pay your rent or mortgage and not lose your home to foreclosure and eviction. Maybe your utilities have already been shut off. Or you’re a differently abled person who is literally shut out by lack of access to buildings and transportation.

Maybe you are gay or lesbian, bisexual, transgender and/or queer and face down bigotry and discrimination on a daily basis. Or you’re a person of color who knows firsthand what racism and national oppression are all about. Maybe you struggle to stop police brutality or demand jobs not jails for youth.

Maybe you are an immigrant or an immigrant rights activist who fights to stop the raids and deportations. Or you’re organizing to overturn the racist SB1070 law in Arizona and others like it being introduced in other states.

Perhaps you are sick of the U.S. wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan and tired of paying taxes for a bloated Pentagon while every social service is slashed to the bone and budgets are cut. Or you support the Palestinian struggle and demand no more U.S. funding of apartheid Israel. Or you’re tired of all the lies directed against Iran and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Perhaps you’re an environmental activist sickened by the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the melting of polar ice caps, disappearing rain forests and the extinction of species due to global warming. You want a sustainable planet and more renewable sources of energy.

All these situations and struggles — and many more — will be represented at the USSF. But despite the sincerity, commitment and hard work of every activist, can any one of these deep problems really be fixed? Is there a permanent solution to any of them?

What these profound problems share is a common source: capitalism. Capitalism is a system driven by a never-ending need to increase profits no matter what the cost to human beings, other species or the planet itself.

Capitalism is killing us and our planet. More and more people — especially youth — are against capitalism according to recent polls. They see what the profit system has done and are fearful that their future under capitalism holds little to no promise of a fulfilling life. They see the suffering of billions of people around the world while a tiny clique of rich parasites own, control and run everything.

Being against capitalism is a good start. But let’s take it further. We need to abolish capitalism and replace it with socialism, a system where all of society is planned and organized to meet human needs and the needs of the earth instead of profits for a few.

Socialism means the right to a job at a living wage, free education and health care, housing for all and much more. It means the development of each person to their full potential, and it means taking care of our planet. Cuba, with very few resources, has shown the world that socialism is possible with a strong leadership and the will of the people. Imagine what could be possible in the richest country in the world, the U.S., if the multinational working class — which creates all of the wealth — were united and empowered.

But socialism won’t happen by magic. It takes a revolutionary party — independent from the capitalist parties — to help organize the class-conscious fighters for the overthrow of capitalism and for a socialist world. Workers World Party — along with its youth arm Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) — unites our many battles and actively expresses solidarity with all those around the globe fighting for a better life.

Look for us at the USSF. Read our newspapers. Attend our national conference in New York City Nov. 12-14. Get to know us better and join us in the fight for a socialist future.