It cannot be won merely by arguing with capitalists or their representatives in Congress that conversion is technically possible, or that it would be abstractly good for people or even for the economy as a whole. Even those capitalists who aren't in immediately affected industries know that by definition of how the system works conversion will be relatively bad for them unless it is relatively bad for workers instead. Therefore nearly all capitalists will oppose desirable changes, however brilliantly we argue. It follows that the only way to attain conversion, like the only way to reduce unemployment, or to get housing for the homeless, is to win it. And we will not be strong enough, nor militant enough, nor organized enough, unless we admit to ourselves and highlight to everyone we talk with all the reasons for defense spending and for opposition to conversion, as well as all the reasons to undertake conversion.
Capitalism is an abomination.
Corporate cigarette manufacturers push death in the same way that heroin and crack dealers do, only more efficiently and for bigger bucks. The owners of Philip Morris, like arms dealers, are at the most disgusting end of the business spectrum, but all along the line capitalism promises only aggrandizement of the few, the rest be damned. To oppose a system as powerful as capitalism, we have to know the rules it plays by. They are not the rules of reason. They are not the rules of justice and human concern.