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This week and next, students and youth around Australia are participating in protests opposing government inaction on climate change and the degradation of the environment.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) and its youth and student arm, the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE), fully support the widest involvement of youth in actions opposing climate change and fighting to secure their futures.

But we warn that the organisers of the events, School Strike 4 Climate (SS4C), are seeking to derail mass opposition and funnel it back behind the very political parties responsible for the environmental crisis. Any suggestion that the upcoming federal election on May 21 will help to resolve climate change, or any other substantive issue facing youth and workers, is a complete lie.

The only party standing in the upcoming elections advancing the interests of workers and youth is the Socialist Equality Party. Our candidates warn that the great problems confronting humanityclimate change, the threat of war, poverty, authoritarianism, COVID-19can only be dealt with on a world scale and by ending the capitalist profit system which is their cause.

Actions planned this month by the SS4C are deliberately narrow in focus. In the past, rallieswhich were attended by hundreds of thousands nationallywere part of global climate strikes involving millions of youth. This time, events planned are small and isolated as a deliberate attempt to smother increasingly radicalised young people.

Many of the SS4C events are specifically advertised as election climate strikes with regional centres and cities not even organising events. A number of the actions are not even strikes.

Instead, they are stunts outside the offices of Liberal-National Coalition members of parliament. The perspective is, in the first place, to pressure Coalition MPs. Failing that, it is the replacement of Prime Minister Scott Morrisons federal government with a government made up of the Labor Party and Greens.

But the record of these parties exposes this political perspective as a cynical fraud. You cannot stem climate change by appealing to the capitalist parties which represent the same corporate interests that are responsible for climate change in the first place.

The Labor Party, led by Anthony Albanese, is pitching itself as a friend of fossil fuel companies. This is part of a broader appeal to the corporations that Labor is better placed to implement sweeping austerity measures and pro-business restructuring than is the Coalition.

Albanese said last month that a Labor government would not block new coal and gas mines. Labor has foresworn even its own phony half-measures of the past such as a carbon tax. The declaration of net zero emissions by 2050 under Labor is a fairy tale, which it has no intention of implementing.

Greens MP Adam Bandt has repeatedly affirmed his partys aimto be a coalition partner of Labor. Despite talk of reducing emissions to zero by 2035, in practice the Greens will work with Labor on every substantive policy point in a government that would faithfully serve the mining barons.

To deal effectively with the consequences of climate change, itself caused by the unbridled and deliberate prioritisation of production and profit over the needs of society and the environment, requires a complete reorganisation of society and the productive forces. Albanese and Labor have already answered that. They are for renewal not revolution.

Bandt, in an address to the National Press Club in April, declared that the main task is to kick the Liberals out, stating that Anthony Albanese will be better than the current PM and that all the Greens needed to do was keep Labor on track. On climate change, all Bandt raised was an end to the opening of new coal and gas mines, which does nothing to address existing emissions, and contradicts the policy of Labor, whom Bandt is hoping to align with.

The record of the Greens is for all to see. During the period of the Greens-backed Gillard Labor government, greenhouse emissions actually increased through the implementation of the carbon-tax, supported by the Greens.

The crises of the past three years expose the incompatibility of capitalism with the continuation of life on the planet.

Unprecedented flooding in February and March in the states of Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) have laid waste to entire communities and led to 22 deaths. With no government assistance forthcoming, ordinary people were forced to fend for themselves.

The floods come after the 20192020 bushfires which burned around 30 million hectares, destroyed nearly 3,000 homes and killed 34 people. As climate change worsens and these extreme weather events become more severe and frequent, the response of governments has been to invest ever smaller amounts into climate change mitigation and community support policies.

This is mirrored in the abject disregard for human life expressed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, another devastating exposure of capitalism and the ruling class here and around the world. Over 7,000 Australians have died from COVID-19, more than half in the first few months of 2022 alone.

The murderous live with the virus policy of capitalist governments around the world, abandoning scientifically-determined public health measures to stem the viruss spread, is based on the profit interests of a tiny, wealthy capitalist class. Students have been herded back into dangerous schools and universities as part of the reopening of the economy where they are at risk of contracting and spreading COVID.

While thousands in Australia and millions worldwide have died in the pandemic, capitalist governments will have no qualms with more death as they threaten to plunge humanity into a third world war.

The current conflict in Ukrainea proxy war by the US and NATO against Russiaand the US-led preparations for conflict with China, raise the spectre of nuclear war. Liberal, Labor, the Greens and the entire political establishment in Australia have lined up with US aggression, backing every provocation against Beijing and pledging hundreds of billions to the war machine.

These military preparations have nothing to do with democracy or human rights. Having laid waste to entire nations, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, American imperialism is preparing a world war aimed at reversing its decline. Russia and China are targets because they are viewed as the principal obstacles to US hegemony.

The drive to war comes not from the minds of individual capitalist politicians, but the objective contradictions of the capitalist system itself, between the socialised nature of production involving billions of workers worldwide and the private ownership of societys resources by a tiny handful of ultra-wealthy capitalists; and the division of the world economy into competing, antagonistic capitalist nation states.

War abroad also necessitates war against the working class at home. This means to suppress anti-war sentiment while gutting workers living and working conditions to pay for ever-expanding military budgets.

None of these existential threatsthe pandemic, nuclear war, climate changecan be solved on a national basis. They require international collaboration on a scientific and socialist basis.

Young people must turn to the international working class as the only social force capable of ending capitalism which is leading humanity through one catastrophe after another. Workers, confronted with declining living standards, misery, mass death and war are beginning to take matters into their own hands.

There is a massive upsurge in working-class militancy around the world. From increased strike action in Europe, Australia and the United States, to mass anti-government protests in Sri Lanka, Sudan and Peru, the working class is once again emerging as a powerful social force.

In order to take the struggle forward, workers and youth must break free of the shackles of the Labor Party, the Greens and all the pro-capitalist organisations, including the fake left and thoroughly corporatised trade unions. All of these forces are there to channel the growing mass anger back behind the capitalist system which is the cause of the existential threat to our planet.

The SEPs election campaign is aimed at winning workers and youth to the necessary revolutionary perspective of Marxism. We base ourselves on the key historical experiences of the working class in the twentieth century, including the 1917 Russian Revolution led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky, and Trotskys fight against Stalinist counterrevolution.

Only through the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism can a planned socialist economy based on social need, not private profit, be built. To join the fight for an egalitarian world free from war, poverty, environmental destruction, pandemics and fascism, we urge you to get in contact with the SEP and IYSSE, support the SEPs election campaign and join the world socialist movement today.

Contact the SEP:Phone:(02) 8218 3222Email:sep@sep.org.auFacebook:SocialistEqualityPartyAustraliaTwitter:@SEP_AustraliaInstagram:socialistequalityparty_auTikTok:@SEP_Australia

Authorised by Cheryl Crisp for the Socialist Equality Party, Suite 906, 185 Elizabeth Street, Sydney, NSW, 2000.

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The fight for a future free of climate change and war is the fight for world socialism! - WSWS

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The business community has failed to turn workers into capitalists through profit and equity participation programs

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Lets be honest: capitalism is not working for many people. Its one of the reasons why capitalism has become a dirty word in some circles.

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I come from a working-class background, and Ive lived under various socio-economic systems. Ive always looked at these systems through the lens of what they could do to improve living standards, and whether or not they could reduce poverty.

Although capitalism is one of the greatest engines of wealth creation in human history, it has a fatal flaw: over time, more and more capital becomes concentrated in the hands of fewer and fewer people.

Consider this: in Canada, the top one per cent of the richest families own close to 25 per cent of the countrys wealth, according to statistics released last year from the Parliamentary Budget Office, while the bottom 40 per cent of Canadian families own barely more than one per cent. In the United States, the story is pretty much the same, with the top one per cent owning nearly one-third of the nations wealth, according to the Federal Reserve.

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The end result is that the rich are getting richer, and the gap between the wealthy and the workers is growing wider. Its not surprising, therefore, that more and more people are turning to socialist ideas.

The problem with socialism, however, is that it is based on the distribution of wealth, rather than the creation of wealth. What socialism fails to account for is that we must first create wealth before we can distribute it. This is why socialist systems, even though they may be noble in their intent, ultimately fail.

After the Second World War, Germany provided a fascinating living laboratory for studying the effect that economic systems can have on living standards. The country was split into two, with West Germany operating under a capitalist system and East Germany operating under a communist system.

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Free-market West Germany became one of the worlds most productive and successful economies. But socialist East Germany experienced a drastic increase in poverty and was ultimately no longer able to feed its population. East Germany was a textbook example of the economic reality that we must first create wealth before we can distribute it.

Today, were seeing a growing appetite for socialistic policies, particularly among the young. And who can blame them? They often graduate from college or university saddled with large debts to pay for an education that in many cases does not lead to good-paying jobs. They end up disappointed, disillusioned and filled with a feeling that the current system is rigged for the benefit of the few.

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In my view, business is largely to blame because it has failed to turn workers into capitalists through profit and equity participation programs. If workers dont feel that theyre getting a fair slice of the economic pie, they will be tempted to support government wealth redistribution policies, and we as a society will drift further and further toward a socialistic system.

Our number 1 priority, therefore, should be to find ways in which workers can get some of the wealth they create not from government taxation, but from the businesses they work for. One of the best ways for this to happen would be to give workers the opportunity to share in a portion of the profits they help make.

The creation and distribution of wealth is at the crux of any economic system. Every economic system must answer two fundamental questions: How do you create wealth? And who gets that wealth?

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Capitalism is extremely effective at creating wealth, but the concentration of capital in the hands of relatively few people ultimately leads to increased taxation and social programs designed to redistribute wealth on a more even basis, as we are now witnessing in Europe and North America. Socialism, meanwhile, is effective at distributing wealth, but in the process, it stifles productivity and wealth creation. It kills the goose that lays the golden egg.

There is another option. Its the system I call fair enterprise. Its an economic philosophy that recognizes that a successful business is driven by three forces: managers, workers and investors, and that all three driving forces have a moral right to share in the success of the business. Fair enterprise is designed to generate greater wealth, and then distribute that wealth in a way that is much fairer and more broadly based than any other system.

Bottom line: until businesses starts doing a better job of sharing the wealth they generate, we will have a problem. We will keep going down the road of socialism and wealth redistribution, and the day will come when theres going to be no more wealth to spread around.

National Post

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Frank Stronach: Capitalists have a role to play in countering the rise of socialism - National Post

This is the report delivered by Deepal Jayasekera to the 2022 International May Day Online Rally held on May 1. Jayasekera is the assistant national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party in Sri Lanka. To view all speeches, visit wsws.org/mayday.

Every bourgeois government in South Asia is engulfed by the immense economic, political and social crisis of global capitalism, highly intensified by the more than two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and the present US-NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

As part of an international upsurge of the class struggle, the workers, youth and rural toilers throughout South Asia have entered into struggle, including strikes and mass protests against the ruling class onslaught on their basic social and democratic rights, which is placing the full burden of the economic crisis on them.

India has been caught up in the US-NATO proxy war in Ukraine, with intensified pressure from Washington on Delhi to break its decades-long ties with Moscow and closely line up with the US against Russia, as in the US-India military-strategic partnership against China. The US-NATO war drive against Russia, with its associated harsh sanctions on Moscow and the resulting breakdown of the global supply chain, has severely intensified Indias economic crisis.

In this situation, the working class and rural toilers in India are entering into struggle against increased attacks on their social and democratic rights by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Several million workers participated in the March 28-29 general strike.

In Sri Lanka, the global crisis of capitalism finds its sharpest expression. Growing popular protests throughout the island demanding the resignation of President Gotabhaya Rajapakse have shaken the government to the core. Since April 9, thousands have engaged in continuous protests, day and night, at the main protest site at Galle Face Green, in central Colombo. These mass protests have been triggered mainly by widespread anger over shortages of essentials like fuel, cooking gas and medicines, skyrocketing prices and hours-long daily power outages.

Working people, youth, professionals and the rural poor are united in this popular uprising, which cuts across all linguistic and religious communal linesSinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Christiandefying decades-long reactionary efforts by all sections of ruling class to whip up communalism to divide and weaken the working class.

Now, the mass protests have reached a turning point, with the working class deciding to intervene. On April 25, about 250,000 teachers throughout the island joined a one-day strike demanding the resignation of the Rajapakse government. Three days later, millions of workers all over the country joined a one-day general strike with the same demand.

This intervention on the part of the working class has further deepened the political crisis confronting the Rajapakse government. The government is hanging by a thread, effectively losing its majority in parliament, with 40 of its members announcing that they will act independently in the future.

Desperate to cling to power, the Rajapakse government is biding its time and plans to unleash a brutal police-military repression against the mass uprising. On April 11, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse, in an address to the nation, issued a thinly veiled threat to anti-government protesters that his government will launch a brutal crackdown if they fail to end their campaign.

Just eight days later, a heavily armed police battalion opened fire on thousands of people protesting against fuel price hikes in Rambukkana, killing one worker, Chaminda Lakshan, and injuring dozens more. This shooting is a clear warning to working people and rural toilers and also an obvious signal to investors and global bankers that the government is prepared to crush any popular opposition to its harsh austerity measures.

As with the government, the opposition bourgeois parties are terrified that the current anti-government uprising will develop into a militant movement challenging bourgeois rule as a whole. Sections of the ruling class and main parliamentary opposition parties, the Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB) and the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), are working to trap dissent within capitalist rule through the formation of an interim government, which will definitely continue with same IMF-dictated austerity measures, further worsening the conditions confronting the working people and rural toilers.

In this situation of the governments preparations for a brutal crackdown and opposition parties interim government trap, the anti-government popular movement faces a grave danger flowing from its lack of a clear political perspective and program to fight bourgeois rule, despite its determination and militancy. This has been clearly shown by the list of demands published by the organizers of the Galle Face protests as the alternative, rejecting the Prime Ministers April 13 offer for talks with them.

While demanding the resignation of Gotabhaya and Mahinda Rajapakse, they have advocated an interim government formed from the existing parliament, excluding anyone from the Rajapakse family; empowerment of the 19th amendment to the constitution, which had made cosmetic changes to some powers of the widely hated executive presidency; a mechanism for taking back all the wealth plundered by members of the Rajapakse family and their associate officials; and holding presidential and general elections within a six-month period.

Galle Face protest organizers, while promoting no politics, are actually advocating politics similar to bourgeois parliamentary oppositionthe SJB and JVPwhich are exploiting popular anger against the government to bring an alternative capitalist government to power, which will not only not resolve any of the burning issues confronting the working people, but will makes them worse. The ruthless demands of global finance capital will not be lessened but further intensified in the near future.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is actively intervening in this popular movement, advocating an independent working class revolutionary socialist program and perspective.

As elaborated in its statement on April 7, the SEP, while standing squarely behind the demands of working people: Gota has to go! raises this demand: What is to replace him? It is not enough to demand Rajapakses removal . [A]s a key step in addressing the current political crisis, the SEP demands the immediate abolition of the executive presidency, which, with is sweeping autocratic powers, holds a gun to the heads of the working class.

The SEP is proposing that the working class fight for the establishment of a government of workers and peasants that will be committed to socialist policies. Such a government will be established through independent organs of the working class. Our proposal to the working people is to form their own action committees at every factory, workplace, plantation and neighborhood, breaking from the trade unions, which are acting as an industrial police force against workers on behalf of the government and employers.

The SEP statement on April 7 has proposed a program and policies to animate the work of the Action Committees to address the pressing needs of the masses, including the repudiation of the debt of the small farmers, fishermen, small industrialists and businessmen; for workers democratic control over the production and distribution of all essential items and other resources critical for the lives of people,; to nationalize the banks, big corporations, plantations and other major economic nerve centers; to repudiate all foreign debts; and to say, no to the austerity demands of the IMF and World Bank.

The fight of the Sri Lankan working class, rallying poor farmers and other oppressed masses, for a government of workers and peasants based on socialist policies is part of a broader struggle for socialism in South Asia and internationally, to be conducted with the unity of their class brothers in South Asia and globally.

Build the International Committee of the Fourth International in South Asia!

by David North, Chairman of the WSWS International Editorial Board

40 minutes

by the Young Guard of the Bolshevik-Leninists in Russia

10 minutes

by Evan Blake, Coordinator of the Global Workers' Inquest into the COVID-19 Pandemic

14 minutes

by Michelle, a working parent in Michigan, USA

3 minutes

by Eric London, Socialist Equality Party (US)

12 minutes

by Keith Jones, National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Canada)

10 minutes

by Tomas Castanheira, Socialist Equality Group (Brazil)

9 minutes

by Deepal Jayasekera, Assistant National Secretary of the Socialist Eequality Party (Sri Lanka)

11 minutes

by M. Thevarajah, Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka)

14 minutes

by Christoph Vandreier, National Secretary of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Germany)

9 minutes

by Chris Marsden, National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (UK)

8 minutes

by Alex Lantier, National Secretary of the Parti de l'Egalit Socialiste (France)

9 minutes

by Ula Atei, Sosyalist Eitlik (Turkey)

9 minutes

by Nick Beams, Socialist Equality Party (Australia)

13 minutes

by Gregor Link, International Youth and Students for Social Equality (Germany)

5 minutes

by Cheryl Crisp, National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia)

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by Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group (New Zealand)

8 minutes

by Joseph Kishore, National Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (US)

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The rest is here:
May Day 2022: The significance of anti-government popular protests in Sri Lanka and the tasks of the Socialist Equality Party - WSWS

France'slong-established Socialist Party has fallen into line behind the hard-left France Unbowed, joining a left-wing alliance aimed at depriving President Emmanuel Macron of a majority in parliament in next months elections. Some party heavyweights see it as the final nail in the coffin of the fracturedSocialists; others feel it's an opportunity for revival. But does the PS really have a choice?

Winning just 1.8 percent of the vote in the presidential election first round in April, the Socialist Party (PS) hit a new low in its steady decline towards political oblivion.

In the red corner, Jean-Luc Mlenchon with his hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) movement scorednearly 22 percent and is now running in whathes termed "the third round" vote. The 70-year-oldwantsto force the freshly re-elected Macron into a power-sharing government, with himself as prime minister.

It's a long shot, but Mlenchon inched a step closer on Wednesday when LFI convinced the PSto follow the French greens (EELV) and Communist Party (PCF) and join the "Social and Ecological People's Union"(NUPES).

It means they will field one list of candidates rather than compete against each other in legislative polls on 12and 19June.

Former Socialist president Franois Hollande hadwarned that snuggling up to LFI "called into question the very history of socialism" and could lead to the "disappearance of the the Socialists". Hevowed toturn down any deal.

But PCF leader Fabien Roussell gave a wake up call sayingno one on the left couldwin on their own. PS leaders subscribed to his message and ignored Hollande's.

"We want to elect MPs in a majority of constituencies to prevent Emmanuel Macron from moving ahead with his unjust and brutal policies and to beat the far-right," the PS and LFI said in a joint statement.

The alliance still needs to be approved by the PS's governing bodies on Thursday evening.

Someformer Socialist Party heavyweights, known as elephants, remainstaunchly opposed at what they see as a threat to the party's social-democratic identity.

Former Socialist prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve said he had quitthe party and would follow other prominent figures in rallying Macron.

But the elephants are no longer representative of the left.Indeed many disgruntled Socialistsblame Hollande himself for taking the party on a more economically liberal course, paving theway for Macron and soundingthe party's demise.

Arecent Ipsos pollshowed 56 percent of voters wanted Macron to lose the legislatives and go into a "cohabitation" with the hard left, while 57 percent supported the left uniting tofieldjoint candidates.

Sojoining NUPESmay be a gamble worth taking.

"What's certain is that given LFI's score, it's impossible [for the left] to remain outside of the LFI alliance," says political historianChristophe Batardy.

Parties have to win at least 12.5 percent of the vote to qualify for the second round. Presidential poll results based on France's 577 constituenciessuggest"the left wouldn't even feature in half of the constituencies in the second round", Batardy explained.

"Mlenchon alone would get 15 percent and the left alliance 30 percent," he told RFI.

The PS and its affiliateshold28 of the 577 seats in parliament peanuts compared to the ruling LREMs 267.

Under the deal, parties will run on the united ticket in a maximum of "winnable"seats.LFI is set to run in the most constituencies, EELV in 100, the PS in 70 and PCF in 50.

"Seventyconstituencies is a good deal," political scientist Christophe Bouilloud told RFI.

"After its memorable defeat in the first round, the only ambition PS leaders can have is to salvage what can be saved, to savethe outgoing MPs."

If the gamble pays off, it wouldbe "the affirmation of a political force on the left".

But someSocialists are refusing to stand down. Stephane Le Foll, a former minister under Hollande, said he was ready to lead them in a separate campaign.

"Its cobbled together,"snorted former Socialist prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, denouncing the "exorbitant price" the PS was paying by being absent in some 500 constitutuencies.

There are also solid financial reasons why the PS needs more MPs.

Like EELV andthe right-wing Republicans (LR), the PS got less than 5 percent of votein the first round of the presidential polls. This means campaign costs are not reimbursed.

MPs bring in much-needed funding.

"Parties get 37,000 per year for every MP, and there is also1.64for every vote a candidate gets," Batardyexplains.

"So there are both existential and very big financial stakes in this election."

"It was either lay down or perish,"says Jean Petaux, a political scientist in Bordeaux. "Some PS heavyweights think the party will just end up being a branch of LFI."

But Bouilloud is more upbeat, seeing the albeit risky alliance as "an extraordinary opportunity" to clarify the political chess board on the left.

"Peopleopposed to the deal will most probably rally around Macron's majorityand that will clarify a lot of things because LREM has always been, structurally, a breakaway of the right withinthe Socialist Party."

It's a reminder, he says, that a large part of Hollande's electorate in 2012 moved over to Macron in 2017 and are still with him in 2022.

"There's no need for a PS in the centre or to the right of the political spectrum.LREM more than enough occupies that role in French politics."

The deal reflects common ground between the PS and LFI, particularly on social policy.

Candidates running under the NUPES banner will defend raising the minimum wage, reducing retirement age from 62 to 60,capping prices on essential productsand rolling back some of the market reforms introduced underHollande.

But itinvolvesbig compromises, notably on Europe, with Mlenchons eurosceptism contrastingsharply with the Socialist Partys history as a driving force for European integration.

The agreement signed with EELV mentions unilaterally "disobeying"the provisions of some EU rules if they prevent the implementation of social and economic goals.

The deal signed by the PS, however, refers to "temporary exemptions" rather than disobedience and says they must remain "within the rule of law".

Nonetheless, the very notion of defying EU regulations has caused consternation in Brussels.

EU law is already suffering from verbal attacks from people like [Hungarian Prime Minister] Viktor Orban and [leader of Polands ruling Law and Justice party] Jarosaw Kaczyski,"Philippe Lamberts, co-leader of the Greens group in the European Parliament told Politico online.

"If the French do it too, there is a risk that the whole EU construction will collapse.

This could all be a storm in a tea cup, however, with observers suggestinga forced cohabitation between Macron and Mlenchon remains an unlikely scenario.

"It would be a democratic miracle if this left alliance were victorious," Bouilloud says.

"It's the first time there's been a push during a mandate to try and upturn the result of a presidential election by imposing a cohabitation on a newly re-elected president, and we have no idea how the electorate will react."

PS elephants may be riled over what they see as humiliating concessions to Mlenchon, who broke from their own partyin 2008after failing to dilute its pro-EU stance and has criticised it ever since. But LFI also needs the PS.

"LFI needs the rest of the left to get an absolute majority and govern," says Elisa Steier, author of Genesis of the Plural Left.

"There is still a big fragility within LFI and the PS hasn't forgotten that," she told RFI.

"LFI is not anchored locally, whereas the PS has both local notoriety and adeep knowledge of the country.

"It's difficult for the PS, but we probably shouldn't bury the party too soon."

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Will crawling into bed with France's hard left save or sink the Socialists? - RFI English

This letter is in response to Stan Shingaras April 4 letter to the editor, Freedom has never been free.

Thank you Mr. Shingara for your service to our country. Before my response, it is important to understand the definition of socialism and communism.

Websters Dictionary definition: Communism is a system of government where the state controls the means of production, a single authoritarian party holds power. Socialism is a social system in which the producers possess political power and the means of producing and distributing goods. A blend of socialism and democracy has served us well for decades. Most notable socialist programs are Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, farm subsidies, N.A.S.A., military, vaccines, health care for veterans, and assistance programs.

To suggest that President Biden is the leader of the socialist Democratic party is ludicrous. Biden served 36 years in the U.S. Senate and eight years as vice president. There are no politicians, Democrat or Republican, state or national, that support replacing democracy with socialism.

Communism would never happen in the U.S. ever. Biden responsible for high gas prices, rampant inflation, crime, illegal immigrants, drugs killing thousands of Americans, people infected with COVID-19? No facts to support any of the above.

Great danger when people are constantly lied to, people believe the lies. Are you referring to former President Trumps lies about Biden stealing the election?

$31 trillion national debt. $4.1 trillion was spent on COVID-19. Trump increased the national debt by $7.7 trillion. When Congress passed Trumps tax cut for the rich and corporations he went to his Florida resort and essentially said to his millionaire friends, I just made you millions of dollars and me too.

Compromised military unable to protect nation. U.S. defense spending is more than China, India, Russia, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Germany combined. The U.S. military is the best trained, best equipped, most dedicated men and women on this planet.

William Albertson Sr.,

Milton

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Socialism and democracy | Opinion | dailyitem.com - Sunbury Daily Item