The Peace & Justice Movement

From the New Unionist - 1821 University Ave. W. #S-116, Saint Paul MN 55104

For decades concerned and dedicated social activists have struggled against the evils of our society. Against militarism, unemployment, poverty, environmental destruction, police brutality, government corruption. Yet despite all the time and effort spent the problems remain. And in many cases and many places they have gotten worse. It is therefore not surprising that many people become discouraged. If nothing seems to work, what's the sense in continuing to beat our heads against the wall? In fact, it doesn't make any sense to continue the same kind of actions that have failed to produce results. But rather than give up hope, the answer is to examine the reasons for our failure and to discover alternative courses of action that can achieve the results we seek.

Attack the Cause, Not the Effects

Militarism is not the cause of war. Militarism and war are both the effects of an economic system that necessarily puts individuals, corporations and nations into a competitive struggle for survival and success. The same production-for-profit economic system must create markets for its corporations to keep them profitable. Military spending provides guaranteed markets and profits for companies that would otherwise, go under, and would bring down the entire economy with them. Similarly, pollution, downsizing, poverty and other problems are the effects of a system that must, under penalty of economic crisis and collapse, make the bottom line the highest priority. The reason these problems remain and get worse, despite all efforts to ameliorate them, is that their common cause has not been attacked. Until the underlying cause - the profit system - is addressed, no actions against militarism, environmental destruction or any other pressing problem will have any lasting effect.

Speak Truth to the Powerless

Those in power have an overpowering self-interest not to see the immorality of their actions. Many sincerely believe they act out of the highest moral principle. By producing weapons they protect freedom. By polluting the environment they save jobs. By eliminating welfare programs they promote personal responsibility and independence. To see things otherwise would be to jeopardize their positions of power, wealth and influence, and deny their "right" to hold them. Even if they could recognize the immorality of what they do, they would be unable to do anything significantly different. A corporate CEO who made world peace, the environment and the welfare of his workers and consumers the highest consideration would greatly increase his company's costs of production. Unable to compete against other companies that put the bottom line first, his company would quickly go out of business - and he, along with all the other employees, would be out of a job. A president or Congress that made these goals their highest priorities would be sabotaged by the economic decisions of private business and be unable to raise the money to get reelected. The 90% population that is without capital, and without the political power capital bestows, may be ignorant, apathetic and gullible. But, as they are the ones who suffer from the decisions of the powerful, they are the ones who have an objective economic interest in changing the system. Actually, most people are very aware of what the problems are because they are living them every. day. They don't come out for protests, demonstrations, civil disobedience, etc., not because they don't care, but be-cause they recognize that these types of actions alone won't solve the problems.

Get to the Point: The Point of Production

People's apathy results from their sense of powerlessness. Yet "the people," the working class - the 90 % who work for the 1 % who are the owning class - possess the potential power to revolutionize society. While their money gives the 1% economic/social power, the fact that our labor operates all the goods- and services-producing industries society-depends on gives us the ultimate power - once we organize to realize it.

A successful movement for social change must

1) Inform and educate itself on the structure and operations of the system it is challenging;

2) Inform and educate the mass of the people on how the system causes the problems they suffer from;

3) Prepare and present a program of economic and political organization to empower the noncapital-owning majority.

Once the majority is informed and organized, democratic revolution - to eliminate for-profit production in favor of, democratically-controlled production for human use - is possible. Short of that, as history has painfully demonstrated, minority action by self-appointed "vanguards" lead nowhere - except perhaps to a new form of oppression.

Luckily, we don't have to reinvent the wheel. Analyses of capitalist economics and social structures, and a program describing what the goal of a new society looks like and how it can be achieved, already exist.

The New Union Party is committed to its task of bringing that analysis and program to the American working class. We invite you to join us in this most important of all activities.