Art by Terrance Osborne

By Dearg Ó Dochartaigh

So, whilst so many of our brothers are out fighting for freedom… the master class are, as usual, busy forging fresh fetters with which to bind the survivors when they reach home. 

— James Connolly, Right to Strike (1915)

We are currently living in an age that has seen some of the greatest technological developments of human history. These advances in every industry, as well as the creation of entirely new industries, has irrevocably altered the structure and actions of the social order; thus creating previously unthinkable amounts of manufactured goods and in turn, immeasurable capital for the members of society in control of the production of those goods. The capitalists of the 21st century have made great strides to solidify their stranglehold on the world by swooping in on these new innovations and immediately seizing them entirely for their class interest in addition to deepening their roots into the medical industry, national and local media, and the “housing market.”

There is no separating class and the labor movement. The labor movement is objectively a form of class-against-class antagonism, no amount of middle class petty-bourgeois reformism can change that. Trade unions are the natural result of the working class organizing for their own interest, the first manifestation of a growing class consciousness. Solidarity with working class means solidarity with their independent organizations and their labor unions.

As of late, it seems a sense of hopelessness has taken over the younger generations in this regard. “Yes, capitalism is destroying the planet, but what can we do?” they say, or phrased differently, “what is to be done?”

Lenin knew what was to be done, and it is with his illuminating torch that we can see the way forward to a better society for all.

Workers of the world, unite!