Does this phrase "No Justice, No Peace" sound revolutionary to you? Do you take it as a ‘threat’? If you do you are totally right, as consequently you are, perhaps unknowingly, acknowledging the pressure of the enormous global injustices prevailing in today’s world. However, it may not be so much a threat as much as it is a cry of the heart. It is not simply a call to protest, but also a naming of the powers and what those powers have done and are still doing.
As Jimmy Cliff sang:
How is there going to be peace?
When there is no justice, oh no, oh
Someone is taking my share
And they just don't give a damn, no they don't care
Furthermore, this slogan can be equally applied to the rising voice as well as to the listener, to whom it could well be a warning.
Notwithstanding, the greatest injustice, presently prevailing in most European countries and strongly promoted by the European Union, is the privatisation of most public and government services. When services are privatised, injustice flows freely. Private corporations frame services in business terms, placing economic outcomes over social objectives, preventing prioritisation of the poor and vulnerable.
Privatisation of government services is nothing but ‘loot’ and services just becomes costlier, entailing higher inflation.
Now everyone is feeling the pinch, worldwide. People voice opposition, but it’s difficult to know what to do without anyone trustworthy to provide leadership. Any politician in this system is going to be controlled by the big money, both here as well as in Europe. Many are beginning to see that it’s not government but corporations who are the ones running the show.
The efficient private sector is a myth, while it is also taking control of public services away from our representatives. Our workers’ unions know this well enough but it seems they are helpless and hopeless, if not corrupt. Why not ask them what happened to the much-vaunted ‘liveable wage’, and if this had been unable to be attained by our government, why was the ‘cost-of-living’ not curbed?
On the constant instigation of the European Union, the previous Maltese government had sold all the family silver. Nothing rendering revenue towards the Maltese economy has been spared. All was surrendered and sacrificed; Dockyards, Public Lotto. Postal Services, Public Transport and most other public services. Besides, due to lack of government efficiency and mismanagement other services have been constantly spilling into private enterprises. Our government has proved itself incapable of offering adequate and competitive services in such departments as education, medical services, care and retirement of the elderly, housing, law enforcement, etc. One must also ask whether we are also moving towards the privatisation of remaining departments including prisons, energy and water. It’s a reactionary redistribution of wealth towards the rich.
Our present administration know well enough that a large proportion of the money paid to the private sector by our government goes straight into the pockets of shareholders than towards paying for the services.
The economic system is rotten to the core and drastically needs to be replaced by a rational planned system that benefits mankind rather than a handful of rich people. Misery is increasing at a rapid pace, matched only by the growth of militarism.
Furthermore, the influx of more migrants is giving business leaders the opportunity to fatten their bottom line by engaging low-cost workers at the expense of the domestic working class.
While the private sector runs with the sole motive of ‘profit’, conversely, the public sector runs with the motive of social equality and empowerment of under-privileged sections and, most importantly, aims at national growth and NOT the profits lining individual pockets.
Meanwhile, despite the good economic news (?), poverty is on the increase and still, after over two years of a Labour government in power, precarious employment is unceasingly running rife. If you don’t fight for the poor for equality and for the under-privileged, one day you will be one!
< It is absolutely essential and indispensable for our leaders
to understand the vicious effects of privatisation
before any decision to even consider such drastic steps. >
We must all heed the stark and ominous warning of James Madison: “I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
While people around the world and especially in Europe have been rising against austerity measures which are suffocating the working, are we, here in Malta, sleeping in peaceful oblivion unknowing of the fateful events circling around us?
What happened to my Great Old Party? Does it still exist? Does it still hold dear and sacred the aims and principles of the real Labour Party – ‘based on socialist and democratic principles’? Wake up, friends!! Why don’t you ask why we have dumped the May Day Rally? Have we turned the celebration of May Day (a participatory international event with the role of the working people in the building of a fair and humane society), into a ‘one-man’ show? Where are the REAL ‘soldiers of steel’?
May Day is not just history; it is culture, reality, and a reminder. We are all human beings, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. We all have the same needs. Everyone just wants to survive and work happily! Another world war is not only possible; it is inevitable unless the international working class intervenes.
We should be vigilant for not getting infected by ‘learned helplessness’ (which is spreading wildly), as inaction can lead us to overlook opportunities for relief and change.
Without the international political unity of young people and the working class, there will be neither peace nor justice!
Image Courtesy of lcpatoday.com