Essays by Hardial Bains
Two Worlds in Combat
Hardial Bains speaking at May Day meeting in Toronto, May 1,
1994.
(Originally published in TML Daily, May 1, 1996.)
There are two worlds in combat today. One is the world of the bourgeoisie, counter-revolution, retrogression and the anti-social offensive. This world of reaction and war tramples underfoot the right of the peoples of the world to chose their own system. There is another world, the world of the working class and all progressive humanity, the world of revolution and the opening of the door for the progress of society. This is the world of pro-social programs, the world of unity and struggle of the peoples of all lands.
While the world of the bourgeoisie is decaying, the world of the working class has to be created afresh, anew. The world of the working class is not ready-made nor will it emerge on the basis of reforming the old world. On the contrary, it is a world that must be consciously created on the basis of the most advanced and revolutionary forces engendered within the modern conditions. May Day must remind all the progressive forces to double and triple their efforts to create the new world.
The old world is relying on everything anachronistic in order to hold itself together. In the sphere of the economy, it has the vain hope that the making of maximum capitalist profit within an institutionalized global system, in the end, will be the basis of its continued prosperity. In the political sphere, it has the vain hope that its unrepresentative democracy, in the final analysis, will guarantee that political power remains in its own hands. In the sphere of relations between peoples, it hopes that the destruction of the very idea of the independence and sovereignty of nations will guarantee its eternal worldwide domination.
The world of the working class, the new world, is relying on modern definitions. It is based on dealing with the outstanding problems of each major sphere of human endeavour. The working class would organize the economy with the aim of guaranteeing a livelihood to all as a human right on the basis of the most advanced techniques and the continuous raising of standards of living. In the sphere of politics, the working class will establish a system of modern democracy in which the representatives are subordinate to the people, and the people directly participate in the selection and election of candidates, and in governance. The working class, in the sphere of relations between peoples, will uphold as a modern principle that all peoples have the right to chart their own course.
May Day presents all progressive humanity with a challenge. It is the challenge to reject everything old and decadent by waging a merciless struggle against it, while creating the new on the basis of the modern working class and on the most advanced thinking and theory coming out of the contemporary conditions. These are exciting times for all those who wish to create the new world. The basic ingredients for this new world are already in existence. The working class has its own experience of revolution and socialism of well over one hundred and fifty years, especially during the twentieth century. The ingredients of this experience are all too precious to be frittered away. The time is now to use these ingredients anew and add fresh ones for the destruction of the old and the building of the New.
Let everyone take their place in this historic combat by leaving the old behind!
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 30 - May 1, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54303.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca