Whatever one thinks about the past ten years, one thing has become clear.

Liberalism has failed.

This is true of both the conservative liberalism of the republican party and the progressive liberalism of the democrats. The high ideals of political equality, individual liberty, and democratic government have only ever been fully realized on paper, and are increasingly being undermined every single day. Most Americans are aware of this fact. We can see in our day to day experiences that there is something wrong with this society. Simply seeing that something is wrong is not enough though. The question then becomes what is wrong? The republican party identifies the problem with ‘wokeness’, a vague mixture of ideas and movements they claim have undermined the nationalism, social conservatism, and free enterprise they believe are necessary to protect liberalism. Democrats identify the problem with excessive corporate greed and a general lack of faith in our supposedly democratic institutions. While the democrats may come slightly closer to the truth than the republicans, both of them miss the root of the issue. 

This is not an accident. 

If the American ruling parties honestly identified the root of the problems of our society, their power would melt away. They depend on dividing and misleading people in order to maintain their social control. Their power only exists because of the same system that is the real cause of our social crises. A social system that concentrates power in the hands of the few at the expense of the many, that divides people against one another, that erodes communities and nature, and that drives us to constant war. 

That system is capitalist modernity.

Capitalist modernity has undermined liberal society due to its two basic pillars. The first is the pyramidal structuring of society. Under capitalist modernity, society is ordered with a vast number of workers at its base, a small number of capitalists at its height, and an army of state officials and organizations that exist to advance the interests of the capital owners. The second is the free market system of economic competition. Due to these systems, a corporate elite has been able to hoard the wealth of society. This ruling class is able to leverage their wealth to bend entire nations to their will. By buying out politicians, turning the vast majority of people into obedient workers, transforming vast tracts of earth for maximum profit, and controlling the flow of information they are able to make a mockery of democracy and liberty. The reality is, our political institutions exist to serve the ruling class, and not the rest of us.

The great irony is that liberalism itself generated the conditions for its own downfall.

By celebrating private property and competition for resources as the basis of liberty, it has condemned the vast majority of people to unfreedom. Institutions on all levels exist to serve the interests of the ruling class. This is especially true of political parties, who fund their operations by securing donations from corporate elites. This means even representatives that claim to speak on behalf of the people at large are actually acting on behalf of their ruling class patrons. Through this system, the majority of people are turned into passive observers of society, unable to really control our own lives, the management of our communities, or the direction of society. There is nothing so sacred or precious that it can’t be transformed into a new market for the ruling class. War, the human needs for shelter and health, spirituality, community and everything else have been turned into lucrative markets for our ruling class.  A system structured this way can never work for the best interest of the people. If this state of affairs is to be altered one thing is clear:

Capitalist modernity must be dismantled from below.

Since mainstream political and economic institutions are fundamentally under the control of the capitalist class, they will never be willing or able to dismantle capitalist modernity. That means we the working class people of the world, of the United States, of New York, and of Oneonta must create our own, independent institutions to advance our interests, arrest the development of capitalist tyranny, and ultimately create a truly free and equal alternative to capitalist modernity. One needs power to contend with power, and that power can only be made real through the organization of working class people in their own communities. We have only our numbers and our labor, and that is all we need to remake society, so long as we have the wisdom to use them in concert with one another.

It is Reclaim Oneonta’s mission to organize the local working class here in Oneonta.

While that work will be challenging, we are not going in blind. There is a long history all over the world of working-class people from all backgrounds who have built their own forms of freedom without relying on politicians or corporations. These forms of freedom allow people to reclaim control over their own lives, over their communities, over the economy, and ultimately over society. We seek to bring to light that legacy of freedom so that people right here in Oneonta can reclaim it as well.

If we want real democracy, real equality, and real freedom, then we have to rely on ourselves to get it.

No people in history have ever achieved lasting freedom by waiting for their rulers to give it to them. A freedom given is a freedom that can be taken away. We have to build our own forms of freedom right here and right now. Either the working class people of the world will wake up, band together, stand up to the ruling class, and begin the building of a truly democratic society, or we will be crushed under a tidal wave tyranny. There are only two sides in the struggle, and Reclaim Oneonta is unflinchingly on the side of the undivided working class.

All power to all the people!