ADAKAH ‘FITRAH MANUSIA’ PENGHALANG KEPADA SOSIALISMA?

Dunia semakin kucar-kacir. Peperangan, kemiskinan dan penindasan telah menjadi sebahagian daripada kehidupan kepada berbillion manusia di seluruh pelusuk dunia. Malahan, 80% daripada jumlah populasi -5.4 billion- berpendapatan harian di bawah 10 dolar. Sekarang, dunia benar-benar dilanda krisis dan in dipersetujui sendiri oleh ketua Bank Dunia sendiri yang mengatakan " krisis ini akan menyebabkan bencana kemanusiaan dan pembangunan, dan angka kebuluran kronik dijangka menjangkau lebih 1 billion tahun ini". Peperangan di Timur Tengah, pencemaran alam sekitar dan masalah ekonomi yang semakin meruncing adalah contoh terkini krisis-krisis yang sedang melanda kemanusiaan sekarang.

Asas kepada penderitaan ini adalah sistem ekonomi, sosial dan politik kapitalisma. Sistem kapitalisma telah memberi ruang kepada syarikat-syarikat multi-nasional untuk mengukuhkan sistem persaingan yang tidak sihat yang mana syarikat-syarikat tersebut hanya menumpukan kepada keuntungan jangka pendek, persaingan kuasa, dan perebutan sumber; tanpa menghiraukan hak dan kebajikan pekerja dan rakyat biasa.

Golongan korporat dan negara imperialis mungkin telah mengambil alih dunia. Namun jutaan telah bangkit ; rakyat yang ditindas dari Lubnan ke Iraq, dari Venezuela ke Mexico bangkit melawan. Sejak bermulanya gerakan menentang krisis ekonomi antarabangsa di kalangan pekerja dan anak-anak muda di dalam negara kapitalis yang lebih maju, penentangan terhadap penindasan ke atas taraf hidup mereka telah menampakkan kemarahan secara menyeluruh.

Kebanyakan mereka yang terlibat dalam pergelutan ini sedang mencari alternatif sebagai ganti kepada kesengsaraan akibat kapitalisma, dan terutamanya di Amerika Latin, kebanyakkan mereka sudah bermula tertumpu ke arah sosialisma. Walaubagaimanapun, pihak-pihak tertentu akan berhujah bahawasanya sosialisma ini tidak relevan di mana ianya menentang 'fitrah (sifat semulajadi) manusia'. Artikel ini sedikit sebanyak mencuba untuk menjawab beberapa persoalan mengenai sosialisma.

KONTROVERSI NOVEL INTERLOK: ‘MEMBUKA PEKUNG DI DADA’ SISTEM POLITIK MALAYSIA

Interlok, novel karya sasterawan negara Abdullah Hussain yang dikeluarkan pada tahun 1970an, telah menimbulkan kontroversi apabila kerajaan mengumumkan bahawa novel tersebut akan digunapakai sebagai buku teks sastera untuk pengajian Bahasa Malaysia Tingkatan Lima. Kerajaan menjustifikasi bahawa novel tersebut akan meningkatkan kesedaran perpaduan kaum di kalangan pelajar berlandaskan konsep 1Malaysia kerana ia “menyatakan realiti masyarakat Malaysia sebelum merdeka” dan “mesej yang disampaikan boleh memotivasi pelajar, ibubapa dan masyarakat berbilang kaum”.

PELAJAR DAN KELAS PEKERJA BERSATULAH !

Protes besar-besaran para pelajar di Britain pada bulan November tahun lalu akibat kenaikan yuran pengajian tiga kali ganda dan pemansuhan elaun pendidikan untuk pelajar miskin, serta perjuangan-perjuangan untuk hak pelajar di negara-negara lain telah diikuti dengan penuh semangat oleh segolongan para pelajar di Malaysia yang dahagakan kebebasan dan demokrasi untuk pelajar. Ada di antara mereka memperolehi inspirasi daripada perjuangan-perjuangan pelajar tersebut, berikhtiar untuk memperjuangkan hak-hak demokrasi pelajar dengan menyatukan kekuatan pelajar di Malaysia. Slogan ‘Kuasa Pelajar’ juga diutarakan untuk menghubungkaitkan dengan pengalaman gerakan pelajar 1960an di Malaysia. Analisis ini bertujuan untuk melihat beberapa inisiatif dan membincangkan perspektif untuk perjuangan hak pelajar dan juga peranan mereka di dalam membawa perubahan dalam masyarakat.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 2011: WHY WE HAVE TO ORGANISE AND FIGHT BACK

In recent months, millions of women worldwide have risen up to resist the devastating effect that the economic crisis is having on their lives.

PARTI-PARTI POLITIK MENGATUR LANGKAH UNTUK MENGHADAPI PILIHANRAYA UMUM KE-13

Kuasa politik alternatif bebas yang berlandaskan sosialisma harus dibina untuk mengemudi perjuangan hak dan keperluan kelas pekerja, anak muda dan golongan tertindas yang lain ! 
 

Parti-parti politik arus utama di negara kita telah mula mengatur langkah untuk menghadapi pilihanraya umum ke-13 yang dijangka akan diumumkan pada pertengahan tahun 2011 atau awal tahun 2012. Nampaknya, sekali lagi keadaan ekonomi negara dan kesannya terhadap keadaan sosial akan menjadi penentu kepada pemenang tampuk pemerintahan Kerajaan Persekutuan- apakah Barisan Nasional dapat mengekalkan kuasanya atau apakah Pakatan Rakyat  boleh menamatkan pemerintahan hampir 54 tahun BN dan mencapai harapannya untuk mengambil alih tampuk pemerintahan kerajaan persekutuan.

WHERE NOW FOR THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION ?

Authoritarian regimes in Middle East fear for their rotten rule

Following hot on the heels of revolutionary events in Tunisia, the Egyptian masses took to the streets during 18 tumultuous days. Now, all the authoritarian regimes in the Middle East and beyond fear for their rotten rule. This is, however, only the beginning of the revolution in Egypt. PETER TAAFFE (CWI) assesses the current critical situation and possible developments. 

IN RESPONSE TO the 1936 French mass strikes and sit-downs in the factories, from ‘distant Norway’, Leon Trotsky wrote: “Never has the radio been so precious as during these days”. How much more so – with the array of modern global communications – can we agree with those sentiments in relation to today’s Egyptian revolution! Millions and billions have had a grandstand view of the splendid unfolding of this drama. All other ‘distractions’ have been put in the shade: football matches between Egypt’s top teams were cancelled, perhaps the ultimate indicator of the effect of revolution!

REVOLUTIONARY WAVE IN EGYPT

Workers across the world have been avidly watching the revolutionary wave of defiance that began in Tunisia and went on to rapidly envelop Egypt. How inspiring to see millions of Egyptian people pouring onto the streets in a magnificent show of desire to get rid of the hated regime of Hosni Mubarak!

MALAYSIA: POLITICAL PARTIES GEAR UP FOR GENERAL ELECTION

REAL SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE NEEDED

All political parties are gearing up for the next general election which is widely expected in the middle of 2011. It looks like the state of the country's economy and its impact on social conditions will be the determinant of the winner - whether the Barisan Nasional (BN or National Front) can hold power or whether the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition can end the 53 years rule of BN. Over the last two and a half years since the last election, people have not been able to differentiate much between the politics of these parties. Nor are they convinced how their MP or State Assemblyman can enhance their living standards and their rights that they promised in 2008.

Most of the social and democratic issues that angered the ordinary people in 2008, that caused big losses for BN, remain. The Pakatan could not come out with convincing solutions and alternatives other than blaming the BN federal government. Meanwhile the BN manicured by adopting some of Pakatan's agenda in the name of reforming the economy and government administration. Nevertheless, at this stage BN has the advantage to retain power with its '3Ms' (Money, Machinery, Media). But it is expected that Pakatan would go all out to try and match them, especially in the states that are ruled by them, as shown by the Hulu Selangor by-election, where they used the state machinery to counter the '3M' might of BN and only narrowly lost.

CUBA: THREAT OF CAPITALIST RESTORATION

NEW PRO-CAPITALIST MEASURES INTRODUCED BY RAUL CASTRO

In September 2010 the Cuban government announced a series of economic "modernisations". Among the most significant of these was the proposal to slash 500,000 jobs in the state sector by March 2011 as a first step to reducing employment by 1 million. Licenses are to be issued by the state to allow the creation of self-employed persons ("cuentapropistas") with the legal right to employ other employees, not just family members.

These measures are the governments' response to a worsening economic situation which has gripped the country, resulting in worsening living standards, food shortages and a deteriorating quality of life for the mass of the population. The "reforms" have opened a discussion within Cuba and amongst socialists internationally about the future of Cuba and the planned economy – which although weakened by bureaucratic measures at the moment remains largely intact - and the prospect of capitalist restoration. Such a development, should it take place, would represent a set back for workers and the labour movement world wide. It would undoubtedly be used by the capitalist class internationally, and especially in Latin America, to discredit the idea of "socialism" and propagate the idea that capitalism is the only viable social system.

IS “HUMAN NATURE” A BARRIER TO SOCIALISM?

Aren't people motivated by money? Wouldn't socialism stifle hard work and innovation?

The world is a mess. War, poverty, and oppression are now part of the daily lives of billions round the globe. Even during the last boom 80% of the world's population – 5.4 billion people – lived on less than $10 a day. Now that the world is in the midst of this crisis even the head of the World Bank has said it will result in "a human and developmental calamity… the number of chronically hungry people is expected to climb over 1 billion this year". The wars in the middle east, enviromental destruction and worsening economic turmoil are only the most recent striking examples of the crises facing humanity.