Capitalism is a horror show: we need socialism

Just when you thought society couldn’t get any more distressing, the horror show that is capitalism proves you wrong. Only days after Gaza was declared to be officially in “famine” (aka deliberate starvation) by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Famine Review Committee, news comes through that Israel has bombed the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, killing at least 20 people, including five journalists. Israel initially hit the hospital with two missiles, prompting emergency workers and journalists to rush to the scene, after which Israel struck twice more.

Days after that, we hear that Tony Blair, the man who launched the UK into the 2003 Iraq War, met with US President Donald Trump in Washington to plan Gaza’s future. Now, 60,000 reservists are being called up to invade and occupy Gaza City, with the Netanyahu government warning that mass expulsions are coming. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has put together a plan to force 600,000 people into southern Gaza, an area that even former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has admitted is a concentration camp. In true 21st century Orwellian style, Katz calls it a “humanitarian city”.

Here in Australia, the forces of darkness have been pushed back or held at bay to some extent. Two rounds of massive pro-Palestine marches, involving hundreds of thousands of people in cities and towns all over the country, have put the Albanese government under pressure on Gaza. And they have shown that the great majority of people see the concerted campaign by all the respectable institutions of society to smear supporters of Palestine as antisemites for what it is: a transparent attempt to intimidate people into remaining silent about the crimes of Western imperialism’s key ally in the Middle East.

The far right has also not been able to make the sort of gains in Australia that it has in many other parts of the world. It remains relatively fringe, but this can’t be taken for granted. The substantial far-right rallies on 31 August, which mobilised people on an anti-immigration basis and were more or less openly backed by organised neo-Nazis, demonstrate there is a constituency open to those politics. Our side needs to continue to counter-protest these events to prevent them becoming a normal part of the political landscape. They must be pilloried and stigmatised and denounced for what they are.

This is particularly the case because, internationally, the far right is having a moment. It has cemented its place in mainstream politics in Europe, the UK and much of Latin America. France’s government is on the brink of collapse, with the far-right National Rally a contender to replace it, and current polling indicates the far right could well form government at the next UK election.

All this will only encourage the far right here. Stemming its growth will require confrontations in the streets through mass mobilisations. It will also require creating a real political alternative that explains the source of housing scarcity, poverty and a rising cost of living by pointing the finger at the bosses, rather than migrants.

We need to combat the racism of the far right and the centre alike, and we need to defeat the capitalist system that gives rise to both. The atrocities and inequality that we’re witnessing now are capitalism laid bare. A competitive, profit-based system cannot guarantee a decent society that prioritises human need and protecting the planet on which we all depend. It prioritises building up ever more deadly military forces, justifying their use against innocent people in the pursuit of power and economic dominance and trashing the environment and human rights when they stand in the way of profit.

But the future isn’t a straight, fixed road. Every act of solidarity, big or small, shows that another world is possible. There are many millions of people who want something other than a future of war, inequality and environmental destruction. The problem is that wanting it isn’t enough. We need to form ourselves into a social force that, when big enough and well-organised enough and clear enough about our end goal, can take on and defeat the enormous power of the capitalist class.

The end goal can’t be a version of capitalism without these excesses because history indicates such a thing is a utopian dream. It has to be something fundamentally different: a socialist society based on the collective power workers have to take control and reorganise the enormous productive resources of society according to what people need, rather than what enriches the tech bosses, energy companies and other degenerate, amoral capitalists. Such a society won’t come about on its own. We need to fight for it now.