HOPE AND REVOLUTION
A New Democracy Flyer
[newdemocracyworld.org]

A Note to our Readers: Most people are disturbed about the direction of society, but feel powerless to change it. We believe people can change the world. The first step in change is that people discuss as widely as possible what society should be and how we can get there. The following is the first in a series of New Democracy flyers on creating a new society.

Revolution Is the Basis of Hope

As we near the end of the twentieth century, many people have lost hope in the future. The reason for this loss of hope is that there seems to be no alternative to the capitalist system. Communism and socialism have failed. The idea of fundamental change--the idea of revolution--has been defeated by the reality of it.

Without an alternative to the system, fundamental change seems out of the question. We seem doomed to live in the grip of a system which defines human life in terms of profit and loss, competition and inequality. Without an alternative to capitalism, the deepest human values and most important human relationships will be forever under attack by the demands of the economy and the dictates of the elite.     

Hope in the future and belief in the possibility of revolution are inextricably linked. Belief in the possibility of revolutionary change is key to the belief that human beings have the capacity to create a human world.

What We Mean by Revolution

The problem in society is that it is completely undemocratic. The real power lies in the hands of an elite for whom working people are merely a source of profit or a dangerous problem. The elite manipulate the institutions of society to strengthen their power. They encourage unemployment to make people desperate. They set black and white and men and women against each other. They take from the poor to fatten the rich.

The present society is based on elite values of selfishness, inequality, and competition. Most ordinary people believe in the opposite values: sharing, solidarity and equality. Revolution means transforming all the institutions and relationships of society to reflect the best values of ordinary working people.

Most people already try to shape their little piece of the world with their values. Revolutions occur when ordinary people gain enough confidence in themselves as the source of the good in society to change the whole world. Revolution means sweeping away elite power and setting up democratic institutions in every workplace and neighborhood, where the voices and votes of working people can determine the direction of society. It means unleashing the creativity and power for good in people, to fulfill together our potential as human beings.

Why We Need A Revolution

Many people fear the future, and indeed the future which capitalism holds for most people is ugly and frightening. People will increasingly be robbed of economic security, to make them more controllable. More power over our lives will be in the hands of the wealthy few. Technology will increasingly be used not to free but to enslave us to unfulfilling jobs or unemployment; millions of people, even billions worldwide, will be treated as surplus population.

But whatever the future holds, the real reason for revolution lies in the present. Capitalism is not just an economic system; it is a system of human relations which maintains its power by attacking everyday the things most essential to our humanity: our understanding of ourselves and our fellow human beings and our relations with them. Capitalism attacks every aspect of our lives by setting us against each other in a race for money and status. The need for revolution comes from the dehumanizing nature of capitalism in our everyday lives.

The problem is not Clinton or Gingrich or other front men for the elite, but the system of elite power itself. Real change requires that we abolish a system based on wealth and power for the few and create society based on real democracy and hope for the many.

Please copy this flyer and pass it on.

New Democracy works for democratic revolution. Call John Spritzler (617)566-9637. For free literature: New Democracy, P.O. Box 427, Boston, MA 02130. E-mail: newdem@aol.com

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