Editorial

The struggle for a better world

We make our own systems. People made capitalism and people can also replace it. We have all the resources and the skills to provide all the needs of the more than six billion inhabitants of this planet. We must take the next steps and construct our economic and social system so that the great wealth created benefits all.

For this purpose we must have a comprehensive economic, political and social program. The Communist Party has such a program which is relevant to the present period of history. Recognising that change is always with us, our program is also open to change to take into account developments in social and economic conditions.

A main element of Marxist theory is class struggle. In our society, at the present stage of history, this mainly involves the contest between those who are the principal owners of property and the means of production and, on the other hand, the working people.

Of course there are many other aspects and elements in the struggle for a better world. Religious organisations and orders also play a part. The Prophet Muhammad, for instance, was ordered to lead a movement grounded in ideological struggle against the social, political, and economic structure of the society he lived in.

The CPA states its views on the question of rights very clearly. We recognise that there are and will be many believers holding to different religions. We respect those who hold religious beliefs and accept their right to hold them.

We support the UN Declaration of Human Rights which says: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change their religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest their religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” And again: “All human beings are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood”.

In pursuit of these principles we are strongly opposed to any discrimination or war that uses as its justification the superiority of one religion over another or the superior rights of those who practice one religion that presents itself as “good” against another which is branded as “evil”.

Good and evil is not to be found as between one religion and another or even between believers and non-believers. It is to be seen more starkly in the division between those who make themselves obscenely rich by exploiting the labour of others and those who demand a fair distribution of the wealth created.

The good and evil divide is also between countries striving for their independence and those who would subject them to colonialism. The new form of colonialism is called globalisation. We call it corporate globalisation or imperialism because an attempt is being made to fashion the whole world to the same pattern as that of corporate USA, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Australia and Japan. The leaders of the US call it “The New World Order”.

Both religious orders and communists have always stood for a better life, for the poor and the sick and the homeless. Perhaps our solutions are different – communists giving emphasis to the here and now which many religious people also do, while religions also hold out the hereafter.

A better life means such simple things as jobs, housing, access to medical services, education, and a stable society without wars. It means the tolerance and richness of a multicultural, multilingual society with diverse religious and other beliefs. It means a welcome mat for refugees rather than their incarceration in far-away concentration camps or on a prison island.

But we cannot change things substantially unless there is a new direction in politics, in economic and in power structures. Private enterprise has had hundreds of years to put things right. Capitalist representatives hold the power, have accumulated the wealth in their hands, have the technology, universities, think tanks – they even had the confidence and the trust of most of the people. Communist-led states and Muslim-led states also have this responsibility and each will be judged by its achievements.

We communists present both a political, economic and social program which offers a socialist way forward.

We are entitled to ask of any and every set of ideas – do they work, do they serve humanity?