FREEDOMS

In the middle of the last boom (1997-2007) it may have looked like capitalism was working, if you were lucky enough to be in a developed country like Ireland, UK, USA or another European union country.
But even during these boom years two billion people worldwide were living on less than two dollars a day and tens of millions of children were dying every year from poverty and preventable diseases. And now the boom is over, one of the first cuts the governments have imposed was to slash millions off the foreign aid budgets. While bailing out fat cat banks and financial institutions.
We need to stop the bust - boom – bust cycle by ending the system based on greed and profits rather than need that drives this cycle.
It is true that previous attempts to implement alternative economic systems have ended in disaster; the Russian revolution promised everything just over 90 years ago but delivered only horror.
In 1916 many good people sacrificed their life for the ideal dream of an independent republic in Ireland. Ninety four years and many deaths later Ireland is still far from being an independent republic.
The principle of the proclamation was never achieved and capitalism supported by a religious elite have flourished. Another horror of the past century.
Unlike the generation of the early twentieth century, we cannot fall into the illusion that an individuals freedom can be weighed on some scales and exchanged for economic security.
In reality this is no more than the reverse of the illusion that free market capitalism has created happiness and success in the last few decades.


What is needed to change things for today, is a system that is based not only on satisfying the needs of the many, but which also does away with the division between labour and social class.
We must organize for a society without leaders and the led, without boss and worker whether that boss wears the top hat of the capitalist or the red star of the political commissar. Cooperation and peaceful co - existence is the only key to humanity’s survival in a new global economic climate.