Dis May

Interestingly, the way by which anti-capitalist protesters justify their own anger is mainly through statistics, for example, There are 15 individuals in the world who are worth more than the whole of sub-Sahara Africa (or the impoverished region of your choice), or Europe spends 3 times more on ice cream (or the dessert of your choice) than Africa spends on clean water, and so on. Whilst these are effective at communicating the sheer disparity between the "West" and the 3rd world, it does after all seems quite biased. Most of these fit into the mould of "The (thing associated with the West) does (some decadent, frivolous activity) and spends more money than (thing associated with the impoverished) does on (vital, life-sustaining activity or good). Either that or time comes into play. "Every (short period of time), (some destructive, evil event) happens. Every two seconds a football pitch-sized patch of rainforest is cut down, every 5 seconds an angsty blog appears on the internet; and so on. Statistics should give the facts straight, like "110 million people are homeless in the world" and not create a greater than necessary impact. The people who seriously would like to help do not need and want to know how many times over Bill Gates could buy Malawi.

Ever since the movement gained momentum not so long ago, May 1st has become a day for the left-wing and environmentalist expression and celebration of virulent anti-capitalism and anti-globalisation. The demonstrations are often riots that entail the destruction of property and violence, much in the same way that 19th-century workers had rallied against their oppressive masters. But unlike these combatative predecessors, present day fighters for justice have hardly any reason to embark on their nihilistic and destructive crusade which, since they see it as analogous to past, more justified struggles, they think is for a just cause and hence fight like it is one. Recent wars tell us that there will be deep resentment if severe actions are carried out without a suitable causus belli.

Socialists used to be idealists. On May Day they used to march for better rights and, at the centre of that, the creation of a communist state. Their cause was just because they were oppressed – the people who marched were those who were oppressed. They had the motivation; they were fighting for something. History has demonstrated the collapse of the socialist experiment, shattering the dreams of socialists everywhere though they loath to admit it. One thing that we may observe about the nature of anti-globalisation protests is that they are against many things – global capitalism, big business, polluters, but they are never FOR anything. They are fighting against these institutions and trends, but not for any particular cause. History has demonstrated the collapse of the socialist experiment, shattering the dreams of socialists everywhere though they loath to admit it. Their only reason for battle, the idealised, industrialised socialist state with total equality, has been ruined. Perfect equality, even in the presence of state-enforced asset equality, is not ever possible. Jealousy can never be eliminated – we cannot eliminate, for example, a veiled smile, or a stolen glance. Without their rallying call to bond them, the only means for preserving unity is to fight a common enemy, that greatest enemy of socialism, capitalism.

These protesters have many grouses, which they propose idealistic solutions for (nothing constructive, in line with my view, for they all advocate the destruction of the capitalist system). One is that global corporations exploit 3rd world nations for their cheap labour. Rather mercenarily, it is often either low wages or no wages. Then these people would go cultivate narcotics, which leads to problems for a whole different set of people. Another is that development by global corporations destroys the environment of the nations they expand into. This is true, but if environmental regulations as strict is those proposed by these environmentalists had been imposed on the 18th century industrial west, they would probably still be 3rd world nations by now. Rapid economic growth and the creation of wealth is more imperative; there is no right to deprive smaller countries of their only path towards this which unfortunately harms the environment – to do so would be, in the words of these people, even more economically tyrannical. It is possible to preserve the environment after industrial development, for example, in Germany, possibly the most industrialised yet the most environmentally-conscious country in Europe.

Socialism in this respect has lost its relevance. As a professed socialist sympathiser, I think that such acts by so-called leftists are appalling. They may be fighting for equality, but taking capitalism to be the adversary as a standard left-wing practice is not the way towards this. They want to annihilate the system that has produced the very prosperity, happiness and freedom that their system could not produce. Capitalism is the system of true social justice where people are free to produce and keep what they earn. This is also how I interpret it, that socialism should be taken as a quest for greater, but not total equality, and not just in the antiquated sense of labour and capital. Socialism benefits not only workers but also the marginalised in society, those who do not fall under the umbrella of charity. If these left-wingers had used even half their fervour and energy in campaigning for, say, anti-discrimination laws or greater social welfare then these causes would surely already be far advanced. Socialism has ceased to be merely an economic system and description and as such, unthinkably, it is something that should co-exist with capitalism, especially global capitalism. The very festival of socialism, instead of being a perversely symbolic day for the fight to destroy capitalism should be a celebration of capitalism and the hope for greater social equality and justice.