Long Live Solidarity, Down With Competition and Selfishness!

There are common values shared by humanity and there are concepts that express these values. The concepts such as solidarity, sharing, benevolence, morality and conscience, honesty, equality, freedom, peace and brotherhood represent positive social values. However, under capitalist system, the positive values of humanity are not respected. Because, the system of exploitation is based on competition. There is an endless competition between capitalists. They all aim at leaving the competitors behind and dominating the market. In the international arena, states compete with each other on behalf of the capitalists. For instance, the reason behind the war, which has turned the Middle East into hell, is the rivalry for dominance and reshaping of the region.

Competition and “devil take the hindmost” mentality arise from the nature of the system of capitalist exploitation. The purpose of capitalists is to produce more and generate more profits. Everything except profit is considered trivial. Having a conscience and a moral stance are basic human values. Yet, to capitalists whose sole purpose is to expand their capital, these values do not mean anything. For, capitalists cannot increase their profits without exploiting workers ruthlessly. To this end, they stop at nothing and use any kind of immoral methods to destroy the unity and solidarity and provoke competition among the workers.

For the exploiters, human values are stumbling blocks that must be disposed of. Therefore, they want competition, individualism and selfishness to dominate society, rather than solidarity, cooperation, equality and fraternity. Competition and individualism are encouraged and exacerbated in the workplace, at school, on the street and in the media. The education system is designed and abused in such a way as to instil this mentality into the young brains. Trusting in people is presented as foolishness. “Always watch your behind and trust no one!” This is the mentality that is injected into the cells of society. Competition, wars, individualism and selfishness are justified by the claim that people are greedy and they cannot be satisfied. That is how they turn the reality upside down.

Yet, it is the capitalists who are greedy, not the mankind. They are the ones who exploit workers, increase their profits and expand their capital with an insatiable greed. The means of production and capital are in the hands of the capitalists. Although the working class produces all wealth in the world, it has no role and say in the production process and the means of production. The working class is a dispossessed and exploited class. Under capitalism, workers are labourers who have nothing to sell other than their labour power. They can survive and provide for their family only by selling their labour power. In this system, the workers are degraded to a semi-slave position. The workers are supposedly free, but their freedom is just a gate to misery. In fact, what is imposed on workers is voluntary slavery. Isn’t it hypocritical to tell workers that they are free, whereas they have no choice but to sell their labour power to provide for themselves and for their families. The reality is that a voluntary slavery is imposed on the workers.

The system that pushes the working class into a slave position creates inequality, injustice, contradiction and conflict in all spheres of life. Hundreds of millions of workers are working, sweating and producing. Yet, the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a tiny minority. Although production has a social character, its outcome is not shared on a social basis. We live on a planet where the wealth held by 2043 capitalists is equal to that of the 70% of the world’s population. Here is another inconceivable fact: the world’s richest 1% seize 82% of the global wealth created in 2017, whereas 3.7 billion people made no progress at all. On one side stand a huge production capacity that is sufficient to meet the needs of more than 10 billion people, whereas on the other side stand a billion people suffering from hunger and misery. Every year, millions of children die from simple illnesses. Can there be any rational explanation for such a system?

The greatest fear of the rulers is that the exploitation system might be overthrown one day. If those who produce all the wealth realise and believe in the possibility of another world, no power can prevent the capitalist system of exploitation from being overthrown. That is why it is claimed that competition, individualism and selfishness all stem from man’s nature and cannot be avoided. There are efforts to deceive the exploited and suffering masses into believing that it is their destiny to have such a life which can by no means be changed. As if the existing system of exploitation is a law of nature and unchangeable!

This idea is used under different forms and in every sphere of live in order to paralyze the consciousness of labourers and determine their orientations. Especially mass media are exploited for this purpose to the fullest extent. TV series, films and even computer games constantly revolve around competition, conflict, war, betrayal, revenge, individualism and selfishness, where solidarity, cooperation, sacrifice, being moral and conscientious are despised. This is no accident. It is likewise no accident that wildlife in nature is presented to the masses in its slightest detail with the most advanced shooting techniques. The aim is to shape and determine the thoughts of workers, to instil into their minds that the social life of man is no different from the wild life in nature and to legitimise wars, brutality, competition, selfishness.

However, despite all the efforts of the rulers, the labouring classes reclaimed the values of humanity time and again throughout history. They rebelled many times to overthrow the system of exploitation. Numerous slave and peasant revolts took place in order to establish an egalitarian system based on sharing of the social wealth on a social basis. And since the emergence of capitalism, there have been workers’ revolts and revolutions. Even though these struggles failed, the revolt against exploitation has never come to an end and it will not. Even a look at the past 10-15 years would suffice to show this fact. In many parts of the world, from Latin America to North Africa, labouring classes revolted against the system. For the emancipation, it is necessary to become more organised, class-conscious and prepared.

However, this requires, first and foremost, avoiding the propaganda of the rulers. The more they attack humanitarian values, the better we must reclaim those values. The positive values of humanity can only be reclaimed and carried forward by the working class. No to competition, individualism and selfishness! Long live the solidarity and struggle for a world free from exploitation!