Entering 2022 still Aiming for a society without exploitation or oppression

For many years now I had the dream of a society without exploitation or oppression, without unnecessary suffering, where every person could reach their potential. Many think this would be impossible. And maybe they are right. But if one does not believe in dreams coming through, there shall never become something better.

I still keep watching out for a world with our animal problems solved, so we could start dealing with our human ones. This was a vision that once stirred hundreds of millions around the world. And I knew there was still an audience for it beyond the Left’s ghettos.

One of my issues in my youth was that I dared to speak before I had turned around my tongue a few hundreds of times. Years later I still might have changed not a lot and I still want to be plain-spoken and “bullshit free”, like the youngsters of today would say.

At my best, I’ve done this, reaching thousands through my different websites to its readers, not being afraid to tell about the dangers of our capitalist society, which uses not only nature but also people, like they are just numbers to be used to gain as much we can.

For the future, I still shall keep pointing my finger at that system based on exploitation and the degradation of the human spirit. At the end of last year the blog “Our World” changed into “Some View on the World“. Blogger had become too difficult to get my messages posted and to be read fluently by a public that I wanted to reach. With my own personal Space and with “From Guestwriters” I tried to get some events under the attention of web readers or tried to get people from all over the world interested in certain aspects.

In those previously started WordPress sites, I tried to present people around me and far away, my vision of a world after capitalism, one built from the wealth and abundance around us, and built up by the understanding and corporation of people willing to unite and to respect everything and everyone around them.

I with others want to radically extend democracy into spheres liberalism has always shied away from — the social and economic realm — and challenge private property in order to foster the type of collectivism that can truly create conditions for individual flourishing.

But most importantly, I have some idea about how to get from our miserable here to that lofty there. We, like many before us, see the working class as an agent of change. Workers are at the heart of the capitalist system. Though those workers often do forget that without them those bosses and factories are nothing. But the world often seems to forget those who are willing by their own force to build up a shop or company. Many do forget that there are lots of groups who suffer indignities and injustices — racial minorities, women, the disabled.

Political organisations should be careful not to focus too much on one group of the population, and should be careful not be carried away by populist ideas or taking it up for so-called weaker ones without investigating their real position.

Why single out workers? Why not just say that every marginal and oppressed group ought to be at the heart of socialist strategy?

While working people are as different and divided as ever, they are still positioned to rattle the capitalist cage and win real gains. The short-term struggle for reforms can not only help millions suffering today, but also put workers in a better position to win more radical demands in the future. This doesn’t mean that struggle happens at a steady pace or in a straight line — there will be great upheavals and ruptures en route to a social society — but it does mean that we’re serious about meeting people and movements where they are and engaging with them.

We all have to engage in the battle for those who are done unrighteousness. Together we have to work or aim for enabling a good life for everyone. In a society in which most people don’t have job security, or have jobs but can’t pay their bills, in which they have to submit to other people’s control, in which they don’t have a voice in how laws and regulations are made — it’s impossible to achieve social justice. I believe I, but also you, can give a voice to those who need a voice, those who live in poverty, those who live on the fringes of society, those who are unscrupulously exploited, those who need to be defended.

The internet knows enough influencers who are very popular, and thrive on their help to build a more materialistic world where the god is money or capital gain. I do know my websites shall never become so popular as theirs, but I am convinced our world does need a contra-voice.

I keep believing in a world system that crosses borders of countries and states, and where people really shall be able to feel that they are going for one and the same goal. Together we can show the world that it is possible to go for an economic system that does not depend on depriving the vast majority of people of these essential preconditions for a decent life.

We have to make sure that workers shall come to see how they do not have to be slaves of society. They shall have come to see that their main priority should not be making profits for others, not the well-being of employees. What we need, is to show the world that there should come an end to work at a pace and duration that is set by bosses and to submit to these conditions, because for most of them, the alternative to accepting these conditions is not having a job at all. This is not some incidental or marginal aspect of capitalism. It is the defining feature of the system and people should know that it can be broken.

People should come to understand that each individual can help to make our society more humane and fair. To reduce the insecurity and material deprivation in so many people’s lives has to be our primary goal. I believe we do have to give more and better prospects to the workers. We need to increase their scope for self-determination. Though I recognise that we immediately shall run into a problem — the political resistance of elites. Those who have the most political power, are already a long time far away from the reality of life. That we could see more than once at this Corona crisis. Often they said things that gave proof that they do not know what goes on in many households. They earn so much that they even do not understand what one Euro or two Euros can mean to a person. They often feel much above the ordinary people because they can do things like lobby, fund political campaigns, and bankroll political parties.

And since they are the ones who benefit from the system, why should they encourage changes in it, changes that inevitably mean a diminution in their power and their bottom line?

The answer is, they don’t take very kindly to challenges, and they do their best to maintain the status quo.

Movements for progressive reform have found time and again that whenever they try to push for changes in the direction of justice, they come up against the power of capital.

Any reforms that require a redistribution of income, or come from the government as a social measure — whether it’s health care, environmental regulations, minimum wages, or job programs — are routinely opposed by the wealthy, because any such measures inevitably mean a reduction in their income (as taxes) or their profits.

If we look back at the conditions in which far-reaching reforms have been passed over the past hundred years, reforms which improved the material conditions of the poor, or which gave them more rights against the market — they were invariably based on working-class mobilisation. This is true not only with the “colour-blind” measures of the welfare state, but even with such phenomena as civil rights and the struggle for the vote.

Entering 2022 I shall continue my ‘battle’, hoping to get some more people to think about the necessity to have a better distribution and a more humane life in this world.

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Published by Marcus Ampe

Retired dancer, choreographer, choreologist Founder of the Dance impresario office and archive: Danscontact-Dansarchief plus the Association for Bible scholars, the Lifestyle magazines "Stepping Toes" and "From Guestwriters" and creator of the site "Messiah for all". - Gepensioneerd danser, choreograaf, choreoloog. Stichter van Danscontact-Dansarchief plus van de Vereniging voor Bijbelvorsers, de Lifestyle magazines "Stepping Toes" en "From Guestwriters" en maker van de site "Messiah for all". View more posts