Imagine

Claire was nervous ‘why had she offered to speak?’ she asked herself; ‘she wasn’t a public speaker, she should have left it to the others; it had seemed easy when she had been so carried away with the idea of being involved with the embryo of a new worker’s party – but tonight she just felt sick with nerves’ then suddenly she heard John introducing her. She stood up, not looking at anyone she launched in.

 

“Do you know what was voted as the greatest song of the 20th century in a TV poll? It was Imagine by John Lennon. It was written in John’s intensely political phase, when he marched against the Vietnam War, spoke out against global poverty and donated money to the Upper Clyde ship-builder’s ‘work-in’.

 

The song itself evokes the vision of a socialist world; a world free from inequality, exploitation, racism and war. Imagine all the people living life in peace.”

 

She stopped and looked around, there were some people she knew but most were strangers to her.

 

The intellectual and moral arguments for abolishing Capitalism are simple but I want to inspire you all to get involved in the day to day fight to improve the lives of your families and communities; to stand up for your beliefs with conviction and courage; to explain the case to others.

 

We can win like we did in the anti-poll tax campaign. Ordinary people got themselves organised and brought down the combined might of the hated Thatcher government, Labour controlled councils and the legal department and brought down, not only the poll tax but Thatcher herself.

 

Now is the time to change and transform society. It is vital for the 1.2 billion people that live in extreme poverty on less than 66 pence a day; according to the World Bank, half the world’s population, 3 billion people, live on less than £1 a day; the poorest 57% of the earth’s population get just 6% of the income.

 

Poverty, starvation, disease, pollution, racism and war stalk the planet. The gap between rich and poor grows ever wider. In Britain under a Labour government over the past 13 years the gap between rich and poor widened more than in the 18 years of Tory rule.

 

It might not seem like it just Now but we live in an affluent society, there’s plenty of money swilling around the planet. Every day £750 billion is gambled on the world stock exchanges and currency markets yet people are starving. Under a socialist society wasteful production could be reduced and useful production increased. There are a million people in Britain on waiting lists for social housing; it would be an immediate priority of a socialist government to employ construction workers to start a massive house-building programme; to build decent affordable housing.; a good, possibly free public transport system, internationally, increased agricultural production to wipe out starvation; to stop the slaughter of a baby every 5 seconds for want of basic food and clean water.

 

Wasteful production for the rich could be halted, for example executive jets, luxury yachts, private helicopters, mink coats, massive gas guzzling cars and other items that devour time and labour purely to enhance the riches prestige. At the other end of the scale, quality control systems would be introduced to stop the flooding of world markets with sub-standard, cheap trashy goods which generally end up in the bin.

 

The environmental destruction caused by capitalism is deadly serious. Every second ten acres of rainforests disappear. That’s 300 million acres every year; a land area almost as big as Scotland becomes barren. It’s our planet. We have to stop this.

 

A socialist planned world economy could phase out fossil fuels; the biggest single cause of global warming and move towards new forms of energy such as wind, wave and solar power. Capitalism has not yet devised a method of privatising the wind or floating the sun on the stock market or selling the sea to the highest bidder. Rejecting socialism because of the appalling track record of Stalinism is like refusing to eat mushrooms because toadstools are poisonous.

 

The battle between socialism and capitalism is essentially a conflict over whether the resources of the planet should be owned and controlled by a minority of people for their own benefit or used by the majority of people for the good of all.

 

Just imagine waking up in the morning to find you have won £2million. Then the same again the next day and the next, for ever. For 20 people in Britain this is no idle fantasy; people like the Duke of Westminster, Richard Branson and the Barclay twins Increase their fortune every day by £2million – without doing anything, not even buying a lottery ticket.

 

Globally Bill Gates, the richest man in the world has more personal wealth than 160 of the poorest countries. At the start of the millennium his personal fortune was calculated at £50 billion. If he earned no interest and went on the most extravagant spending spree imaginable and spent £1 million every day it would take the Microsoft boss 136 years to spend his fortune.

 

But do we want a fortune? A few years ago the Women’s Communication Centre carried out the largest ever survey of women’s opinion. Tens of thousands of women were asked the simple question ‘what do you want out of life?’

 

A number of answers were repeated over and over again by thousands of women. They wanted clean air, a more equitable society, time to do the things they wanted, enough money to pay the bills, feed and clothe their children and have a decent standard of living without constantly worrying about debt. Good health, better working conditions, a shorter working week, access to education for themselves and a better education for their children, better and cheaper public transport, a decent house and garden, an end to war. The right to live their lives without being dictated to, more smiling faces. A happier world.

 

In the 21st century these demands are perfectly reasonable yet they appear unattainable to thousands of women. They appear unattainable because under capitalism the accountants who run the system on behalf of the rich tell us we can’t afford them.

 

The truth is all these things and much more can be achieved by organising society differently.

The key question to ask yourself is;

which side am I on?

Private greed or social need?

Profits or people?

Inequality or fairness?

Hierarchy or democracy?

Capitalism or Socialism?

 

As John Lennon said over thirty years ago;

 

‘Imagine all the people sharing all the world...

 

You may say I‘m a dreamer but I’m not the only one

I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one.’

 

I would urge you all to join us and help to fight for a better world.”

 

There was a stunned silence for a few seconds then spontaneous applause.

 

A little group of four young people stood up and cheered. ‘Count us in’ they shouted. The meeting broke up in to chattering groups for a few minutes, Grace hugged Claire and the candidate stood up and shook Claire’s hand.