The good news

The bad news is that capitalism is forcing more suffering on the workers and oppressed. Some 1.3 million jobless workers who have been living off extended unemployment benefits — extended because even the government had to admit that the jobs just weren’t there — will be scrambling to survive after Dec. 28 when the checks they depend on are cut off.

The good news is that more and more people are realizing that their troubles come not because of some failing on their part but because this capitalist system, whose whole purpose is to provide profits for the rich, can’t deliver even a moderately decent life for most people who get up and work five days a week or more.

What?! Not even three squares and a roof over your head in a country where billionaires increase their wealth by tens of millions each year? Right, that’s capitalism for you.

So let’s try to enjoy the holiday season while we can. Happy New Year, peace on earth, goodwill to all. But after all the platitudes are over, let’s rededicate ourselves to fighting this system. The destiny of the working class is to overthrow this rotten system — that pushes us increasingly into a race to the bottom. That pits worker against worker, nation against nation. That takes the stunningly powerful technology we have created and uses it to destroy other people — and the planet.

We can replace it with a rational system, owned not by individuals but by all of us collectively, so there can be work for all, health and joy, and enough left over to repair the awful damage of the last century. We can replace it with socialism, workers’ power.

Is there any other choice? Revolutions are what have reshaped human society in the past, and they’re long overdue today. They take hard, stubborn work, but there’s nothing more rewarding than to struggle for the liberation of humanity.