A seemingly simple question, but it is a question that has puzzled radicals and conservatives, academics and working people alike, for centuries now. Adam Smith, the Scottish Enlightenment thinker who provided much of the intellectual foundation for modern capitalism, saw its defining force as one of economic rationalization, efficiency, and the blooming of human potential and wealth through increased production and free trade. 

From his perspective in the eighteenth century, maybe he was right. But from our vantage point in the twenty-first century, when big business has overwhelmed and overtaken democratic processes, driven imperialist adventurism from Venezuela to the Strait of Hormuz and beyond, and fueled racial, ethnic, and religious bigotry, that rationality is hard to see.

Advocates for capitalism like Margaret Thatcher have argued that there is no alternative, that capitalism is natural, an outgrowth of intrinsic human behaviors. But is that true? 

In order to answer the question, we must understand what capitalism actually is, and more importantly, how it works. From an understanding of its internal processes, its logical and illogical developments, and the relationships it constructs between those who have and those who have not, we see why the liberation and efficiency promised by people like Smith, Thatcher, and the current American administration curdles over and over again into exploitation, criminality, and the violent repression of dissenting views. 

For Karl Marx, the great intellectual forebear of the socialist movements of the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries, the reason for this was obvious. For him, capitalism was not a theoretical conception of human behavior. It was a social structure built by human beings, a historical product of choices made across centuries, and ultimately a source of immense social, cultural, and political power, one reserved only for those with the resources to own and exploit the immense productive powers of capital and labor alike. 

From basic first principles, Marx and others who followed him sought to dissect capitalism from its origins to its noxious endpoints. They saw in capitalism the division of society itself into those who possess property and those who possess nothing but their own labor.

They also realized that capitalism was internally contradictory — in order to make use of their immense holdings of capital, the factories and machines that gave industrial capitalism its astounding productivity, capitalists needed more and more workers, brought together to share the same labor, the same exploitation, and the same resentments. 

As the working classes grew, they became increasingly radicalized by the realization that while the workers themselves lived on the knife’s edge, paid nothing more than the wages needed to stay alive, and sometimes not even that, their labor was the key to the profits that the capitalist class used to build opulent mansions, to expand production around the world, and to ensure that the political class was wrapped around their finger. Through organization and radicalization, the workers developed their own forms of resistance and power, a force that could challenge capitalists’ claims to economic and social dominance. As Marx argued, capitalism had created its own gravediggers.

This analysis has undergirded revolutionary movements, working-class radicals, and oppressed peoples who saw in the vision of an alternative genuine liberation and a future for humanity defined by freedom and equality.

Things are dark right now. The world order promised by Trump and his minions is one of unending hatred, exploitation, and bloodshed. Their vision is apocalyptic. But they are not all-powerful. Working together, we can reject the horrors they promise. Working together, a better future is possible.

Celebrate Marx’s memory with a slice of cake and a celebratory reading of his final thesis on Feuerbach: “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.”

Reading, thinking, and writing under the watchful eye of Prussian spymasters, in the salons of Paris, and, most famously, in the Reading Room of the British Library, Karl Marx saw through the optimistic veil of capitalist triumphalism to see the exploitative and inhumane forces that made capitalism work. In its place, he foresaw a socialist future where the immense output of capitalist production was controlled by workers and distributed to all.

Celebrate Marx’s memory with a slice of cake and a celebratory reading of his final thesis on Feuerbach: “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.”

Steering committee co-chair Nelson gave a rousing speech:

“We in DSA are here today because we oppose Donald Trump and his murderous regime, and we stand in solidarity with all our communities and working people who are under attack, both here in the United States and abroad.

In the past few months, we’ve watched in horror as the Trump administration bombs Venezuela and Iran in imperialistic acts of war. Not to mention the domestic terrorists who operate under the name of DHS. These acts of violence are not just attempts at furthering billionaire hegemony but attacks on working class people all over the world.

Our society should not belong to strongmen, greedy billionaires, or those who rule through fear — it belongs to all of us, the working class. Donald Trump is repulsive, unprincipled, cowardly, but we know he alone is not the problem. He is the product of the system of capitalism that gives power to the most greedy and violent among us.

Almost 60 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King identified capitalism as promoting three evils shaping American life — racism, poverty, and militarism. He explained how they are interlinked and how we must struggle against them to shape a better society for everyone. These evils have only grown over time, and our struggle against these evils continues with the fight against this administration, which sows hate and division across our country and throughout the world…”

YDSA led a march to protest the UF police departments 287(g) cooperation agreement with ICE.

In Turkey, thousands of people demonstrated on May 1 to protest the anti-democratic political arrest of Ekrem Imamoglu, the main competitor to President Erdogan in the next general election. In Germany, labor unions rallied against anti-immigration policies targeting minorities. In the Philippines, workers from all over the country gathered in the capital, Manila, to demand wage increases and demand protection of local industries from Trump’s tariffs.

Lastly, Americans—including hundreds of Gainesvillians—organized protests against the Trump administration’s attacks on public services and federal workers.

Things look bleak.

Billions of people are tired, alienated, and frustrated with their bosses and their politicians. Our society is unjust. Our democracy is not a democracy for 99%, but rather a democracy for the 1%.

With a recession knocking at our front door, it’s now do or die. Will Americans allow their politicians to give tax cuts and bailouts to the ultra-rich? Or, can they win real, life-changing reforms like Medicare for All, investments in public education, and green public transportation?

The Trump administration’s attacks on our public services proved that the writing is on the wall: a recession is coming, and the billionaire class knows this. The billionaire class will dismantle and commodify our public services, our children’s education, our healthcare—while they weather the storm and turn a profit. If they did it in 2008, they can do it again.

Only the working class—the producers and the foundation of our economy—has the power to win real change. When workers go on strike, workers strip billionaires of their one source of power: money.

International Workers’ Day on May 1 teaches us about the power of workers. The holiday celebrates the anniversary of the Haymarket Massacre of 1886, when workers on strike in Haymarket Square, Chicago, were ambushed and killed by police officers. To make matters more grim, the Chicago Police framed the killings on the strike organizers by planting and detonating a bomb at the scene of the crime.

What were these workers striking for? The eight-hour work day. During a time when most people worked 12-16 hours a day, seven days a week; during a time when factories employed thousands of children; during a time when women were paid less for the same work men did; during a time when the color of your skin decided your hourly wage, is it any surprise that workers were pushed to their limits, organized, and demanded the eight-hour work day?

One can’t help but feel grateful for these workers who sacrificed themselves for comforts that we take for granted today. The lesson of International Workers’ Day is that, in spite of the obstacles, the workers of Haymarket won. Their dreams became reality. We have progressed so much as a society, and we can still go further.

Working families in 2025 long for working-class-centered politics — politics where their voices are heard and their needs are met. That is why the Alachua County chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) will be organizing a six-part series of political education events at the Civic Media Center on second Wednesdays, open to the public at 6:30pm each session.

May 14: What is Capitalism?

June 11: What is Socialism?

July 9: Race & Capitalism within the United States

Aug. 13: Immigration 101: No Human is Illegal

Sept. 10: US Labor History and the Socialist Pole

Oct. 8: Fascism and the American Right

DSA is calling on our community members in Gainesville to discuss these topics in a group-setting. We hope to brainstorm solutions and potential campaigns in Gainesville.

International Workers’ Day 2025 has demonstrated that real change is on the horizon. Workers have built this world. Now, workers will save this world.

Our bylaws are a living document, built with love and care by the steering committee. We will be having an upcoming chapter convention to get more input from the membership on the bylaws and how we run our chapter.