36
20
As what some might call a “Marxist degenerate” myself, I was delighted to hear that the Courier Mail was getting hot under the collar about some left wing articles published by Semper Floreat. For the writers at the Mail to sit up and dust off the cheeto crust from their fingers to write a piece denouncing our student newspaper, shows that student unionists at UQ must be doing something very right.
After receiving a tipoff from well-known racist and general shithead, Barclay McGain, the Mail decided to try to manufacture some outrage over a series of articles, including a helpful how-to on shoplifting and an excellent polemic by Indigenous member of Socialist Alternative, Chloe Towers, on why we need to abolish the police.
Following on from the guide to shoplifting, I’d ask just one thing: why stop there?
Why should working class people and the poor be content with crumbs? Do we not deserve more than a wheel of high-end cheese, or some smoked ham that we wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford, spirited away into our pocket at the local Coles?
I reckon we should stop at nothing less than expropriating all of the wealth from the capitalist class and their hangers on, and using it to provide for the needs of all of humanity.
Workers produce all the wealth in society, like the kind that lines the pockets of the Mail’s very own parasite in chief, Rupert Murdoch. And the billions of dollars in wage theft at the hands of corporations like Woolworths, McDonalds and 7/11 are not even telling the whole story.
Workers are fundamentally exploited in capitalism, because instead of getting to keep the entire value of what they produce, it is taken straight off their back and into the pocket of a boss.
So we should not just pocket a pithy tribute here or there to reward ourselves, but should aim our sights higher, at a full seizure of the means of production. Anything less is just altering the rate of exploitation of workers, rather than abolishing this fundamentally exploitative relationship that exists in every workplace, in every country in the world.
And before the CM editors start frothing at the mouth, I’ll spell out exactly what I mean: c-o-m-m-u-n-i-s-m.
Radical ideas on how to win a liberated society have always existed in the student movement, and today is no different. In the ongoing class war being waged on workers where we’re facing rising inflation, high rent and declining real wages, increasing numbers will be forced to reckon with the unequal status quo.
In the UK, where the crisis is particularly acute and increasing numbers are falling into poverty, a recent survey found that half of young people today think that in the current situation, “rioting in the streets is justified”.
It remains the case also that in every economic crisis, google searches for “the communist manifesto” skyrocket.
So it’s the duty of the radical minority to spread the ideas that argue for total system change as far and wide as possible, and to fight to bring an end to this disgusting system. To this end, it’s great to see Semper Floreat, the student newspaper, giving a voice to this minority and not bowing down to the censorious snowflakes at the Murdoch press.
Author
Visits: 1431