If there’s one thing we understand, it’s that Socialism is often considered to be a taboo word, especially in the States. Most of us grew up here, after all. We’ve heard the same bad things about it as you probably have, resulting in that stigma against socialism being created in our minds as well. So why do we at Reclaim Oneonta call ourselves socialists today, if socialism is such a controversial and dangerous ideology?

Well, there’s a lot to say about that question, and each individual member will likely have a different answer. It’s honestly a rather vague question in general, and socialism itself is such a broadly-applied term. This holds especially true in a political atmosphere as seen in the United States, where anything can apparently be labeled as “socialist” depending on the weather, time of day, and mood of whichever politician is speaking about the topic.

So, what are we talking about when we claim to be socialist? Are we trying to resurrect Stalin, take away your food, and make everyone share a toothbrush? Or maybe we’re trying to dismantle society, throw away technology and live in camps? Or perhaps, what was it, to host a Muslim takeover of America, force everyone to be transgender, and something something about a secret hurricane machine? Well, it would be a ‘no’ to all of these bad faith portrayals of socialism.

The very simple, broad, and yet probably most insightful answer to what socialism means to us is the rejection of capitalism as an economic system. The system is called “capitalism” because our society shapes itself around the forces of capital, or money. Therefore, our societal structure is based around money. The market dictates who gets to have what based on profit. Places that aren’t profitable to send food or water to simply don’t get food or water. The automobile industry is so profitable that almost all of the United States rejects public transport and builds cities to be incredibly car-dependent, forcing everyone to buy a car or suffer the consequences. When there’s a recession, that’s just how it is and everyone suffers for a time. When monopolies raise prices for no reason without consequence, that’s just how it is and everyone suffers. When employers start paying less, demanding more labor, and offering less benefits while landlords increase their rent, pharmaceutical companies jack prices up to 7,000% of the cost to create the medicine, and you have to spend much of your paycheck on health insurance that doesn’t cover any health issues, your taxes fund foreign countries’ militaries instead of improving the town you live in, that’s just how it is and everyone suffers.

Capitalism had a place in history and a role to serve. It helped lift society out of feudalism, where societies were literal subjects to kings and queens and other monarchies. Capitalist concepts created factories, a global network of trade, and advanced society. However, capitalism also created some of the worst evils in society – intentional famines, slave trades, and the conquest of third world countries resulting in the killing of dozens of millions of people for minerals, oil, and other natural resources. This is because capitalist society is built around what makes the most money for capitalists, rather than what is best for the people in general. In a limited amount of situations, the interests of capital may happen to line up with the interests of the people. However, the great majority of the time, capitalism only serves to strengthen the power of the ruling class. The business plan for a company is always to make the most profit. This requires the formation of monopolies to shut out competition, the maximum labor demand from workers, and the minimum pay to workers. The politics of the ruling class will always be to serve the billionaire corporations who give millions to them, which is why our government’s policies always align with the interests of oil, automobile, and data tracking companies. As the ruling class becomes richer and richer, their policies inevitably shift to protect the ultra-wealthy rather than the poor.

Socialism, to be very simple and broad, serves the interests of the people rather than the interests of capital. Socialism, in all of its forms, seeks a democratic way to protect the interests of the people as a whole. From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs. What this means is no longer will we be forcing 80-90 year olds to work as a cashier just to survive, while their CEO pays them minimum wage and makes millions every year. We will no longer be working long workweeks with harsh conditions and low pay just to line the pockets of the CEOs. Our production has surpassed what is necessary and only benefits the rich. We will only work to produce what is necessary for society, so we will have less work overall, and the work that we do undertake will actually benefit the people in the society in which we live. We will govern democratically, and the majority of the people get to decide on policies that affect us, not the rich few.

What we do right now, as a society, is serve an unplanned economy, letting the markets decide what is best for itself and not considering what is best for us. What’s worse is that we have billionaires influencing the market to serve their interests over ours. As humans, our best asset is our minds. Any system that we can plan and organize will always be better than a system that we don’t, and this fact naturally extends to the economy. Why should we have an unplanned, unstable, volatile market influenced by the will of billionaires, when we could have an organized, planned, unbiased economy that serves all of the people who make up our society?

It’s time that we start governing based on what the people actually want, rather than abide by the ebb and flow of a made up monetary system. All of us live here, and all of us are affected by the government. Shouldn’t we all get a say?