![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/barbed-wire.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Congratulations if you made it all the way to Belmont. You either helped to commemorate an act of working-class defiance – or unwittingly celebrated the power of the owners to dominate our lives via a legal system designed to preserve the holy of holies, the sacred right of private property!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There have been a few social changes in the last 125 years. The biggest have involved\u00a0the concentration of real wealth (capital) in fewer and fewer hands and the spread of the capitalist system of production throughout the world, creating two really huge armed camps, a load of wannabe power merchants, and an ecological timebomb.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
So what do we do if we are to have control of our lives and solve the problems that we face as workers?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
First we need to acknowledge that the issues we face occur time and time again, they\u2019re not accidental \u2013 they\u2019re built into a system that\u2019s driven by one thing alone, the profit motive. Things only get made when profits are expected. No profit, no production. No matter what people\u2019s needs are.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And no amount of tinkering at the edges will remove the inherent instability from what is now a worldwide system.** Despite any cosmetic changes, and whatever national politicians claim, the last 200 years have shown that capitalism is uncontrollable, and increasingly dangerous.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
And here\u2019s the bonkers part \u2013 most workers believe that this state of affairs is somehow natural. It\u2019s not, it\u2019s been made by human beings. Money, markets, state borders are all historical constructs that we allow to restrict us, that we no longer need.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If we are ever going to have a stable, sustainable society, we have to make a new history where we take the world\u2019s productive resources into common ownership, where we produce to meet people\u2019s needs. Of necessity, this must be a wholly democratic society and, as private property is the basis of any social power, it will be non-hierarchical too.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is a practical proposition \u2013 we have the productive resources to create a sustainable abundance of the things we need to lead fulfilling lives.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
**A boring historical note for you \u2013 the organisers of the original trespass belonged to the SDF \u2013 an increasingly reformist, undemocratic organisation that expelled most of the people who would go on to create the SPGB, precisely because they put forwards this very idea.<\/p>\n
Click here for a local socialist’s view: A kid from Deane<\/a><\/p>\n Why not take a look at the latest Socialist Standard<\/a>?<\/p>\n ONLINE MEETING – THE SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE<\/strong> – Monday 6 September 7.00pm – Congratulations if you made it all the way to Belmont. You either helped to commemorate an act of working-class defiance – or unwittingly celebrated the power of the owners to dominate our lives via a legal system designed to preserve the holy of holies, the sacred right of private property! There have been a … <\/p>\n
\nclick here to go to meeting<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"