DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM FROM AN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE
BY TIJAN NIMAGA, Bronx New York
Throughout the past month we have been debating socialism from a Gambian perspective and it was a debate that brought us closer to some of our nation’s pundits from all walks of life including politicians, radical economists, bureaucrats, ordinary citizens and, most importantly, some former members of our nation’s Defense Unit. As I mentioned in my last article, it would surprise many Gambians to learn that socialism is alive and well in America, and is growing despite the fact that the USA is the largest capitalist nation in the world. Some influential Congressmen in the United States like John Conyers, Ranking member of the House Judicial Committee, David Bonior, Maxine Waters, President Clinton’s outspoken defender in the impeachment debates, along with almost 60 other Representatives have all offered some kind of aid in supporting Democratic Socialism.
The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is the largest socialist organization in the United States and it is profoundly committed to democracy as a means to an end. Its main objectives are to establish and extend political democracy and also to create empowerment in the economy of the United States. The organization itself is governed by one of the main principals of socialism, which is to reject any international economic order that is sustained by private profit, alienated labour, race and gender discrimination, environmental destruction, and brutality and violence in defense of the status of quo. The DSA organizes social programs where young men with less knowledge of socialism are schooled so that they can understand what socialism advocates and the principles by which they operate are very rewarding. Such types of programs are what we need, not only in The Gambia, but in the entire African continent. As capitalism has continued to be an African disease, elsewhere in the civilized and developed countries efforts are being made to bring socialism into active political life. The United States is one of those countries. The best definition I can think of for Capitalism is that it is AN AFRICAN DISEASE which, since independence, has created nothing but war in Africa with a few powerful individuals controlling the national economies which could have been socialized for the common good. The worst part of it is that it creates greed among members of the private sector while nations watch their ailing economies worsen.
The greatest sadness, however, is the misunderstanding and the rejection of people to embrace socialism in many African countries. What people fail to understand is that Democratic Socialists do not want an all-powerful bureaucratic government and neither do they want corporate bureaucracies to control society. They want society’s social and economic decisions to be made by those affected by the daily problems. In America where wealthy stockholders and corporate executives make their own decisions without caring how it will affect the lives of millions, socialists are trying to establish a way by which resources would not be used to make money for capitalists but rather spent on human needs. The workers and consumers who are affected by the economic institutions should control those institutions. Social ownership takes a variety of forms such as worker owned cooperatives or publicly owned enterprises managed by workers and consumer representatives. The misunderstanding of this principle has created a political disease for both bureaucrats who simply don’t want socialism and for semi-illiterates who do not know that Democratic Socialism itself has long rejected the belief that the entire economy should be centrally planed. In the Gambia, for instance, the democratic socialist plan could shape major social investment like transportation, housing and many other social projects to determine the numerous demands for consumer goods.
Many analysts belief that former socialists who ruled Africa fully instituted democratic socialism but no country in the world has ever fully adopted it although, in some countries labour movements and socialist parties have won the hearts of the people. A good example is the welfare state maintained by the Swedes, the Canadian national healthcare system and, most notably, France’s childcare program, to name but a few. The problems affecting Africa are as the former American President, Ronald Regan, once said, i.e. “government is not a solution to our problem[s], government is the problem’’ Those famous words of the late Ronald Regan exactly describe the political climate in Africa and, sad to say, as long as capitalism continues to inject its venom into the political minds of our bureaucrats, there shall never be an economically free Gambia or Africa as a whole. Merely substituting one political party for another is not the solution for democracy and better economic growth. Rather changing the entire political system to Democratic Socialism is the answer to the economic and political struggle The Gambia has faced since independence.
Having tried capitalism since independence and watched it fail us; it is now time for our country to try socialism as our system of government. A government “of the few, by the few and for the few” is completely undemocratic and will result in nothing but civil wars, greed among politicians, failing economies and many more national political disasters such as coup d’etat. This is why the Democratic Socialists of America are trying to educate its younger population in schools and public places about the various principles of socialism.
Finally The Gambia should take an example from Venezuela, the nation that has become a 21st century democratic socialist nation. With its socialist revolution, Venezuela ended retreatism, sectarianism and much more dogmatism in the left of its political system and has also contributed a way forward to reopen the door to democratic socialism. Until then the struggle for a democratic socialist Gambia and Africa continues. CHEER UP COMPATRIOTS!!!