The Right to the Earth

As Long As There Is Capitalism,
We Have No Right to the Earth

"We must recognize, and loudly proclaim, that every one, whatever his grade in the old society, whether strong or weak, capable or incapable, has, before everything, THE RIGHT TO LIVE, and that society is bound to share amongst all, without exception, the means of existence at its disposal. We must acknowledge this, and proclaim it aloud, and act up to it."

--Peter Kropotkin
"The Conquest of Bread," 1892, Chapter 2, Part III

The Capitalist has laid claim to everything in sight.  To the air, which they pollute with countless toxins; to the oceans, which they destroy with their equipment and chemicals; to the land, which they poison with inorganic fertilizers; and to the factories and machinery, which were all the product of exploited workers and inventors.

They would even lay claim to the very parts that were making up your body while you are in the womb.  It took oceans of blood and millions of sacrifices before they couldn't lay claim to that right.  But instead, they claim the right to everything that you need: to the food that you are responsible for growing, to the industry that you are responsible for building, and to the profit of the services and tasks you fulfill.

You are no longer at the beck and call of someone who owns you; instead, you are at the beck and call of someone who owns everything you need on a daily basis.  Before, they could deprive you of the right to life by owning you.  And today, they can do the exact same thing, but instead, it is by owning what you need to live.

They own the fields, the factories, the farms, the workshops, and the mines.  All of the irrigation pipes, the drilling machinery, the iron presses, the chemical plants, the assembly line factories -- all of these are the possession of a very few.  In order to work, to labor upon the wealth that your ancestors built while slaves, you must give the majority of your production to a master.  Instead of giving tithes to the church, or giving tribute to the vassal, or giving taxes to the state -- you are giving profit to the landlord, the industrialist, and the capitalist.

Society was changed from one where a few owned the majority, to one where a few owned what the majority needed.  The theory has been changed, but the fact remains just as indignant and painful.  If you have a right to live, then you have a right to work the land and to reap the benefits of your labor.  And if you do not have that right, the right to the earth, then you have no rights at all.

You will only have the right to food, where you consent to work eight hours -- to produce all that is needed for industry and life in one hour, but to keep working for seven hours to produce a profit.  It is to be eternally subjugated; you are unable to control or change the thing that is most significant in your life -- the means of production.

The capitalist determines how you work, under what conditions, under what hours, and at what pay rate.  You are free to give in, and if you don't like it, then you are free to starve.  That is Capitalism!  But everyone has a right to the earth, to benefit from society, to the industrial production of past ages.  And if we don't have that right, then every other right is a lie.

Punkerslut,

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