Socialist Action /October 2000
FIGHTBACK
by Sylvia Weinstein
Shipwrecked
What would we do if we were shipwrecked on an island that had no population
but ourselves? And if we wanted to survive until rescued?
Understand that among those shipwrecked with us are older people and
children, as well as healthy adults, male and female. What do we do to survive?
First, we would have a division of labor. Some would go search for drinkable
water, others to look for food, and others to find some sort of shelter
for all of us. If they can't find shelter we would have to build something
to protect us from the elements. But first of all we would assign people
to care for the children and for those who are old or ill and in need of
medical care.
Most important would be the care of the children because the parents
could not join in the work while leaving their children in danger or unsupervised.
Making these decisions would be democratic by necessity. Without the
agreement of all we would not be able to have a division of labor, nor would
we survive for very long. Leadership would have to be earned by work ethics-not
by fiat.
It would be difficult. Tools would have to be made, food would have to
be gathered or hunted, local plants would have to be tested for medical
use, clothing would have to be created from whatever is useful, and fire
building would become a necessity. All of these actions would require talent
and inventiveness-which all humans have the ability to develop and expand.
It does not take an Einstein to develop the basic knowledge needed to
survive. Nor to organize a society to provide care to those who need it,
especially the children. But unfortunately, we live in a system that values
people the least and private property and profits the most.
Capitalism needs profits above all else. If a profit cannot be made,
then nothing has a right to exist.
That's why the capitalist class is working overtime to destroy public
schools and turn them into profitable enterprises, starting with the voucher
system. The voucher system promises better schooling, but like Firestone
tires they will explode once our public schools are in private hands.
Then it will be the parents who will be bilked out of every penny in
order to have schooling for their children. Just as a college education
costs thousands of dollars today, so will education in the private elementary
and middle schools.
Even prisons are not neglected by the profit-hungry capitalists. In fact,
1.5 million children in the United States have a parent in jail. This is
because of the massive jump in the prison population. The U.S. has more
people in prison than China, Russia, or any other industrialized nation.
Since 1991, this country's prison population grew by 62 percent to 1,284,894
in 1999.
Capitalism is not good for children or their parents; it is only good
for the profits of the few and the misery of the many. What kind of society
puts profits first and children last?
Socialist Action /October 2000 |