As 2024 opens, the horrors produced by the cataclysms of the 20th century are being reenacted. Genocide is being openly adopted as an instrument of state policy. The attempt by the Israeli regime to exterminate the Palestinian people in Gaza proceeds with the open endorsement of the United States and its imperialist allies. Every major government has allowed the COVID-19 pandemic to kill millions, normalizing death and suffering for the past four years and abandoning any mitigations to save lives. Extreme inequality is rampant, provoking the growth of fascistic forces.
The World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board New Year statement argues, “to claim that democratic forms of rule can be defended outside of a frontal assault on the wealth of the ruling elite and its domination over the economy is the height of political and intellectual charlatanry.”
The final section of this four-part statement makes the case that “The prospects for humanity would be bleak were it not for the historically verified fact that the contradictions that drive capitalism to destruction also set into motion the conditions for its overthrow and the reorganization of society on a new and progressive, i.e., socialist, foundation.” This powerful statement concludes, “Imperialism’s normalization of war, genocide, pestilence, and fascism will provide a mighty impulse for the revolutionizing of mass consciousness and, therefore, the normalization of socialism in the political outlook of the working class.”
