Defining Our Politics
By: Fenway Socialists
Tags: Socialism, Communism, America, Anti Capitalism, Politics

Fenway Socialists is about to begin our second year as a club. When we first started the organization we defined our politics as anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, eco-socialist, anti-racist, and anti-misogynist. Now that we have laid a foundation and are entering our second year, we wanted to flesh out what that means to us.

Anti-Capitalism

To be anti-capitalist means to oppose the system that exploits the labor of the working class and centers profit over human need. Anti-capitalism comes down to resisting the commodification of social relations, and working towards a world where who we are isn’t defined by how we sell ourselves. Capitalism produces for profit, meaning essentials of human existence are not produced if there isn’t profit to be made. To be anti-capitalist is to work towards building a world where people’s needs and dignity are a priority, not incidental to production. Capitalism will always be an exploitative system that feasts on the labor of others, such as the unpaid domestic labor that women have provided for generations to reproduce the workforce. The logic of capitalism compels production to be based on the cheapest sources of labor and has historically found solutions in slavery, immigrants, and imperialist efforts in the Global South where labor laws are more flexible.

Capitalism also alienates, isolates, and exploits. It is a system that works to benefit those in power, and keep that power contained in the top 1% of society. CEOs, landlords, and small business owners create their profits on the basis of working people’s labor. To be an anti-capitalist is to fight for a system that bases production on the needs of people. To be anti-capitalist means to believe the capitalist state cannot be reformed to become “humane”. Anti-capitalists must fight for equality, justice & reparations for the oppressed peoples of the world. We must fight the commodification of our struggle and of our environment. We must fight back against private property, the violent armies of the capitalist state, and work with the people to oust the ruling class and create a world without capitalism.

Anti-Imperialism

Capitalism necessarily extends into imperialism. At a certain point, a capitalist country lacks resources, labor, or capital and needs to find new ways to reproduce. Imperialism allows capitalist countries to invade, plunder, and exploit the resources of other countries. The U.S. installs governments that allow their businesses to invest and extract profit. When a country opposes this, they’re invaded and overthrown, and a government that will allow US business interests to exploit their country is propped up. Being anti-imperialist isn’t confined to just being anti-war; we must also recognize that war is the result of imperialist actions that exploit other countries resources and strip them of their wealth.

Being anti-imperialist also means to recognize nationalism and patriotism as misguided. It means to know that every person on this planet is united by class far more than by nationality. An African billionaire and an American billionaire have infinitely more in common with each other than with the working classes of their continents.

To be anti-imperialist is to be against capitalism’s advances on the innocent, to fight against the exploitation of the oppressed peoples of our world. They have created the wealth of this empire, and it is to them that it belongs; the goal of revolutionary struggle must be the control and use of this wealth to address the needs of the oppressed peoples of the world. As socialist internationalists based in the imperial core, we must stay informed on the happenings of the world. To be internationalist is to be informed of the damage done by imperialist countries, and to support the worldwide struggle for freedom against all imperial advances.

Anti-Racism and Anti-Misogyny

Anti-racism and anti-misogyny means to actively oppose white supremacy, misogyny, misogynoir, transmisogyny, and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment within ourselves and within our institutions. Capitalism was built off the backs of slaves, immigrants, the colonized, and former colonized peoples of the Global South, as well as the unpaid domestic labor of women. Relationships of oppression were part of the foundations of capitalism and they still exist today. To be a white anti-racist means to acknowledge and weaponize your privilege to help defend those targeted by racists and the State. We must also oppose white feminism, which only seeks to expand opportunities and privileges for white women with a disregard to women of color and a hostility towards trans women.

Everyone comes from different backgrounds and experiences. There is a blatant disconnect when it comes to class and race in our society. People of color are treated differently by the State, which perpetrates racist and classist violence through capitalism’s institutions. Our system protects the interest of the upper class through “civil” neo-liberal politics, co-opting movements and ideologies to control public consciousness. This legitimizes the misogyny and racism found in culture and politics, with states controlling non-men and people of color through the criminalization of abortion and sex work; forms of structural and institutional violence against these people.

It’s not enough to say ‘racism is bad’, we need to lock arms with those who are struggling and fight with them. It is the same with being anti-misogynist. Men must renounce their privilege as men and help defend non-men who are targeted by misogynists and the State. That means confronting and de-platforming racists and misogynists. We must recognize the same pressures that caused the adoption of slavery still permeate our society and have taken on new forms of domination. When we agitate against the system we live in and offer support to those most marginalized by our society, we can work to stamp out the root causes of racism and misogyny.

Eco-Socialism

Capitalism centers profit over need. This process of production has led to the environment being corroded to the point of irreversible ecological crisis. Capitalist production is the sole reason the Earth is overheating. The major corporations know they’re responsible for climate change but won’t change how they produce because their sole motivation is more profit. Eco-socialism means to oppose the self destructiveness and shortsightedness of the market and replace it with production that rationally allocates resources towards human priorities in the short and long term. Economies based on human need lasted for thousands of years in peaceful coexistence with nature and the planet. Only with the advent of the industrial revolution and capitalism have we seen the state of our planet rapidly deteriorate to the point of human extinction.

We must also recognize that de-growth, decolonization, and controlling production are vital to the future of our world. We must promote sustainability in our environment and not continue to capitulate to corporate interest that harms people and the planet’s well being. Workers’ democratic control over production is key in rebuilding what has been destroyed.

Written by members of the Organizing Committee of Fenway Socialists