In order to succeed, the Left must grasp the problems it faces at their root. This root of inequality, misery, corruption, wars and exploitation of the planet is capitalism.
History and everyday politics are shaped by a fight for resources. This fight between the Haves and Have-nots takes various forms. Many of us know this conflict personally: companies try to increase profits by increased production and lowering wages / work standards, while the employees tend to oppose this, e.g. by taking strike actions. Or: big businesspeople bribe politicians in order to get taxpayers' money / a share in a state enterprise etc.
This conflict is a natural and vital part of capitalism - if a company wants t survive, it has to maximise profits. And that can be achieved only at the expense of its employees and the environment. If a company doesn't exploit one or the other, directly or indirectly, other companies which don't shy away from exploitation will overtake it. Regulation of these practices apparently don't work (20th century social democracy lead to the rise of Reagan's and Thatcher's neoliberalism), or work only locally, e.g. within the EU, and the exploitation is simply exported to the Global South, i.e. Asia, Africa, South America.
It has to be said that a mere change of form is not enough. The class struggle doesn't disappear if we tweak, e.g., the number of MPs or the electoral process - it just changes its form.
Capitalism cannot be reformed. It must be replaced by an economic system which is based on fulfilling people's needs, not maximising profits.However, this transition cannot be hastened, nor artificially designed - that would be utopianism. The mature form of a fairer society will be given by the material conditions we will have to deal with on our way to socialism.
Historically, the Left has always stood by the people under political or economical oppression. Never for its own gains and never selectively. Leftist solidarity is universal.
We are all born into the same world, into one human community. A good life and reaching the full potential of an individual is to the benefit of the whole society. Limiting individual's opportunities based on one's social status or identity limits common prosperity.
The basic prerequisite for reaching one's full potential is full material security. "Freedom" and "equality of opportunities" are meaningless to a poor person. A person financially reliant on another person cannot act freely - they become a slave.
Therefore, our solidarity means a fight for wage equality; social security for the youth and dignified retirement for seniors; equal rights, equal work opportunities, or accessible healthcare for everyone, including the Roma and Queer people; poverty alleviation and protection of the excluded; fight for peace and end of militarisation. Solidarity ought to be synonymous with social fairness.
There's no place in our movement or our society for prejudice or discrimination in any form. If we want to fight for a fairer world, we must fight for everyone, not just one particular group. All of our problems share one common denominator - capitalism. Capitalism makes use of discrimination, which is the source of cheap labour; deepens the class struggle against the people; pits us against each other. Because it's easier to rule over a divided people.
Environmental protection is hardly a peripheral and minor topic limited to a handful of activists anymore. In the era of extreme weather - from tornados in Central Europe, 50+ degree heat in the West Asia, to sinking Pacific islands - it is the duty of the Radical Left to offer solutions.
Climate change is proven to be a product of human activities dating back at least to the Industrial revolution. While the Right talks about Malthusian myths like overpopulation, consumerist culture, or the need of market-based solutions, the Left knows all of it is shallow sloganeering at best, or yet another form of class struggle at worst.
Currently enough food is produced to feed 10 billion people, so the problem is not overpopulation, rather inefficient food and resource redistribution. Furthermore, over 70% of global emissions are caused by about 100 corporations. Blaming the average Joe is a mistake. It's important to emphasise the need of socially just transition towards a greener society: it's not enough to close the mines - miners also need to be given good new jobs.
Tváriť sa, že klimatickú krízu možno zažehnať zmenami v osobnej spotrebe, alebo zakazovaním plastových slamiek by bolo ale krátkozraké. Dôvodom prečo je naša spotreba zbytočná a tak vysoká nie je akási “kultúra konzumu”, ale, opäť, kapitalizmus – systém založený na vykorisťovaní ľudí a planéty, systém nadvýroby, obmedzeného technologického pokroku a neefektívneho prerozdelenia zdrojov a výrobkov.
Hence, effective fight for our shared future and the future of the next generations is rooted in complex, socially just solutions and moving past capitalism.
Peace and antimilitarism as a synthesis of solidarity, anticapitalism, and ecology. Peace is a value in which all pillars of our movement meet.
Warmongering with the end goal being oil, minerals, or new markets is in total conflict with everything the Left represents. Although we are part of the world which profits and gets its strength from endless wars and poverty elsewhere - part of the Imperial core - it doesn't mean that we will value our relative comfort over human lives.
Proletarian has no country, classical leftist saying goes. It means wars under the flag of this or that state by no means benefit the average worker, rather the military-industrial complex, i.e. companies and politicians who make money by selling weapons. Militarism and war conflicts are the ultimate resolution of capitalist logic of infinite growth - once there's no space to grow at home, new resources and markets are to be found abroad.
War and arms race has a profound ecological effect. E.g. between 2001 and 2019, the US Army has produced twice as much emissions as the Slovak Republic. Not to mention the destructive power of nuclear weapons, which the West holds onto no matter what - their use in any scope would destroy not only human lives, but whole ecosystems as well, which the peoples of Pacific and Japan can testify to.
The liberation of modern-day colonies, end of oppression, limitless arms race, and peaceful cooperation - those are the requisites for building a better shared future.