All of the economic directives dictated from above by the big financial powers (whether national or supranational, like the EU) to our governments have very clearly had two main aims: to preserve the profits of capitalist elites and weaken the power of work.
Nonetheless, as this magazine has long insisted, work is the only force that is truly capable of generating wealth. And that was confirmed by each and every one of the socioeconomic reports released (both in Spain and throughout the world) in the final quarter of 2014.
Eduardo Galeano has rightly affirmed that “this murderous system kills the hungry instead of killing hunger, and is at war against the poor but not against poverty”. And the simple fact is that half of the world’s income is in the hands of 1% of its richest inhabitants. At the same time, seven out of every ten people on the planet have seen their income (originating from the work they do) decrease for each of the last thirty years. The impoverished, then, have become even more so, while the rich have steadily increased their wealth – thus intensifying the already existent inequality in the world.
In other words, the looting of the workers’ wealth has grown, because the increasing impoverishment of the majority of the planet’s population is certainly not a result of not working. Likewise, it has not come from a lack of contributions to the creation of real wealth. Simply speaking, this poverty is a consequence of ‘work’ – and even salaried work. Therefore, the explanation for the phenomenon is clear: in today’s world there is more exploitation and more instability than there was fifteen years ago. In short, there is more slavery – yes, slavery. For, when what is necessary for a dignified life is lacking and Hunger is a companion for communities across the globe, the less freedom there is. [And we haven’t even mentioned the UN’s deceptive report on the state of the Millennium Development Goals.]
Furthermore, Europe and Spain are not unfamiliar with this process. We know, for example, that around 12% of salaried workers in Spain earn less than what is technically referred to as the poverty line. In fact, approximately 34% of Spanish workers earn less than 634 euros each month. Additionally, each Spaniard has an average debt of 21,400 euros, because of the loans taken out by their government. And, as employment, housing, and health deteriorate, the fracture in society grows wider and wider.
At the same time, the corrupt culture in charge (under the most absolute form of relativism) continues to convert people into commodities (and to maintain them as such). And neither superficial change nor ‘indignation’ will truly give us a solution. Essentially, only through the strengthening of a new culture of solidarity, born and fostered at a grassroots level, will we finally be able to find a remedy for the pernicious political disease that plagues humanity.
Publishing house of Self-management magazine