Why Socialism or Barbarism

Rosa Luxemburg, the great socialist militant, warned more than a century ago: "The ultimate choice for humanity is either socialism or a return to barbarism." Today, in the twenty-first century, this phrase is not merely a theoretical slogan but a tangible and terrifying reality. The global capitalist system, founded upon exploitation, endless competition, and the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few, has failed and continues to fail to resolve its own structural and inherent crises. The irreconcilable contradiction between the productive forces and the relations of production deepens daily. The outcome of this contradiction is not peace, justice, and universal well-being, but rather massive economic inequality, increasing poverty, the re-emergence of military and fascist barbarism, and a threat to life on Earth. Only socialism is the conscious and rational strategy that can replace this chaos. If we do not fight to overthrow imperialism and capitalism, if we do not move towards socialism, barbarism, in its modern and destructive forms, will completely dominate the world and destroy everything.

1. Capitalism is Incapable of Resolving its Own Contradictions

Fundamental contradictions are inherent in the very nature of capitalism. Currently, the productive forces have advanced to such an extent that they could provide food, housing, healthcare, and education for all the world's people; however, the capitalist relations of production—which place private ownership of major resources and means of production in the monopoly of a small elite for profit and capital accumulation—prevent this. Every economic crisis, from the crisis of 1929 to the financial crisis of 2008 and the post-COVID recessions, has shown that the capitalist system cannot prevent the recurrence of periodic collapses. According to a 2023 World Bank report, the class gap has reached its highest level in the past 50 years. The richest one percent of the world's population own two-thirds of the newly created wealth, while tens of thousands of people die daily due to poverty and lack of access to healthcare services. Absolute poverty, famine, and homelessness have not decreased; rather, they have intensified due to escalating wars, rising military expenditures, and the imposition of austerity policies and privatization. The logical outcome of the continuation of capitalism is not Fukuyama's "end of history," but rather the end of human civilization and a regression to an era of barbarism.

2. Socialism Does Not Come Automatically; Struggle is Necessary

Contrary to the notions of revisionist and capitulationist left-wing parties, and the failure of social democratic policies in Europe and the West due to following neoliberal economic slogans like "the market adjusts itself" or "technology solves problems," socialism is not born spontaneously from within capitalism. The ruling class will never voluntarily and easily give up its power and wealth. Socialism must be consciously fought for; we must organize, unite the working class and the toiling masses, and place political power in the hands of the people. The experiences of the October Revolution of 1917, the Chinese Revolution of 1949, Cuba in 1959, and today's resistances against imperialism show that whenever the socialist movement has weakened, the capitalist system has intensified its exploitation and warfare, pushing humanity backward.

3. If Socialism Does Not Arrive, Modern Barbarism is Certain

Concrete examples of today's barbarism are the revival of Nazism and the far-right in the heart of Europe and America. Neo-Nazi and fascist parties in Germany (AfD), Italy (Fratelli d'Italia), France (National Rally), the Netherlands, and Sweden are on the verge of coming to power. Trump's anti-immigrant policies in America—the Mexican wall, separating immigrant children from their families, and the ban on Muslims entering the US—the crippling sanctions on Cuba, imposing hunger on Cuban children and power outages on Cuban citizens, and complicity with the Zionist regime of Israel in the genocide in Gaza, are all clear signs of barbarism. In Europe, the passage of harsh laws against immigrants from war-torn countries in parliaments, the deliberate drowning of asylum seekers in the Mediterranean Sea, the beatings and shootings of refugees by European border police, their re-deportation to war-torn countries, or their transfer to forced labor camps in Libya and Africa—all of these are the very essence of barbarism.

Meanwhile, the gains of decades of labor movement struggle—such as fair wages, reduced working hours, universal health insurance, free education, social services, and the non-use of violence by police against worker protests—are being confiscated one by one. Capitalist governments in the 1970s and 1980s broke labor laws, increased working hours, reduced pensions, privatized healthcare services, and brutally confronted peaceful demonstrators as if they were enemy soldiers on a battlefield. In the United States, 40% of people cannot afford a $400 emergency expense. In the United Kingdom, following Brexit, millions live below the poverty line. This is social barbarism—a regression to a state predating the labor movements of the 19th century.

4. Genocide and Human Catastrophes: From the Holocaust to Gaza and Afghanistan

The barbarism of capitalism and imperialism repeats the Holocaust in new forms. In the past, the fascism of Nazi Germany carried out the mass murder of Jews, Romani people, and communists. Today, the same tragedy is being repeated in Gaza and Palestine by Zionism, under the support of the US, France, Germany, and the UK. From October 2023 to May 2026, over 72,760 Palestinians have been killed and more than 172,700 others wounded, the majority of these victims being women and children; hospitals, schools, and refugee camps have been bombed, and deliberate famine has been imposed. This genocide is occurring before the eyes of the world, with the US vetoing action in the Security Council.

Furthermore, American imperialism does not shy away from using weapons of mass destruction. In August 1945, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in the deaths of over 200,000 civilians. Then, for the first time, in 2017, the US used the "Mother of All Bombs" (GBU-43) in Nangarhar, Afghanistan, whose destructive power was not less than that of an atomic bomb. The sanctions on Cuba for over 60 years, the sanctions on North Korea, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, and recently Russia—all of which cause economic, health, and food blockades—are a quiet method of massacring children and adults. The UN has reported that US sanctions on Cuba in 2022 caused shortages of medicines and medical equipment, resulting in thousands of deaths.

5. The Law of the Jungle: The End of Human Rights and Democracy

In the capitalist system, national law applies only to the lower classes of society, and international law applies only to weak countries. The United States and its allies ignore the rulings of the International Criminal Court; even the judges of this court are sanctioned and threatened by the US and Israel. Repeated Security Council resolutions—including those on Palestine, the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan—are vetoed or violated by the US. Individuals like the military leaders of Israel, the US, and NATO who wage war, commit aggression, and perpetrate massacres are not only not prosecuted, but some, like Barack Obama—who during his presidency increased drone strikes in seven countries and raised the number of his invading forces in Afghanistan to over one hundred thousand—have received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Human rights, women's rights, and democracy have been turned into weapons in the hands of great powers to suppress countries that act independently and refuse to obey the US. NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia (1999), the occupation of Iraq (2003), and the war on Libya (2011) were all justified under the false slogans of "supporting democracy and human rights," while the main goal was access to economic resources and the destruction of independent states. The media outlets affiliated with oligarchies—such as CNN, BBC, Fox News, and the Wall Street Journal—distort facts, feed misinformation to the public, and conceal the crimes of their own governments.

Therefore, the choice is clear: either we fight for socialism and a just world without exploitation and war, or we witness the complete return of barbarism, fascism, genocide, and ecological destruction. There is no third way.

لطفا نظرات خود را با ما شریک سازید

مخاطبین گرامی برای برقراری ارتباط با اتحاد مبارزان سوسیالیست می‌توانید با استفاده ازین فورم با ما در ارتباط باشید، سوالات و نظراتتان را با ما در میان بگذارید، با ما بیشتر آشنا شوید و گزارشات تصویری، صوتی و نوشتاری خود را برای ما ارسال کنید.