by Milton Johanides

Created on: July 02, 2009

Socialism is the political face of a caring society. It is a system of thought which puts people first. By contrast, capitalism puts capital, or money first. Although capitalists would argue that by letting markets drive investment a more efficient social model is created which can be funded by private money, in reality, private money is interested only in profit and in people only to the extent that people can help to increase profits. Without the French social movements of the nineteenth century, spurred on principally by men like Henri de Saint Simon, who advocated a "brotherhood of man" to accompany the advances in industrial technology, and Pierre Joseph Prouddhon, who declared "property is theft", it would be a much poorer, far more exploitative world we lived in now than it already is. The recent debacle of the collapse of the free market shows quite clearly that capitalism is a runaway train that sooner or later runs out of track.

If we can imagine the political climate in France just prior to the French Revolution of 1789, we would see a horrific scene of social injustice where the few were over-provided for while the vast majority were left in miserable, disease-stricken poverty. When Marie Antoinette was told the people were revolting because they had no money for bread, she replied "Let them eat cake!" Such was the gap of understanding between the haves and the have nots, and so it always would have been, were it not for the progress of socialism which laid out the principle of basic human rights. Children should not be used as slaves, men and women should not be treated as faceless robots working in dangerous factories. There ought to be provision for the unemployed, the sick, the elderly. All should have the right to an education regardless of faith or nationality. These are principles which had to be fought for during the 1800s and which we all take for granted today.

The above summary may lead some to conclude that the work of the Socialist pioneers has been done, that we are all converts now to the socialist model, and that we no longer need to fight the fight for the underpriveleged. But this could not be further from the truth. The drive for ever increasing profits in an ever more competitive global economy means that the interest and livelihoods of ordinary men and women will continue to come under threat. Even now, companies are responding to falling profits as a result of the market crash by laying people off. It is taken for granted

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