The World Wide Web Of Living

The web of life – everything linked and interdependent. From the tiniest particle of soil to the African elephant; from plankton to whales and consumers of sea food; from the rice seeds germinating in Asian paddy fields to the plates on western tables. It's easy to recognise the links in the chain, links which if broken can disrupt the natural order and create problems throughout the web.

On a purely physiological level what, to be a part of this web of life, does humankind require?

Sun. Air. Water. Food. The fundamentals for sustaining life of all forms. As far as shelter is required organisms have evolved and developed according to climate and discrete circumstances. Molluscs and turtles have shells, many animal species dig holes in the ground or make nests of varying intricacy and humankind gradually developed structures until we reached the current wide variety of living spaces found today.

Considering the many centuries that humankind has existed on this planet (how long?) it is within a relatively short period of time that these four basic needs – sun, air, water, food – have come to have a very different emphasis, have come to be seen as something other than a basic necessity for all, even though being deprived of any of them puts life in general at great risk.

Since developing beyond the early form when all lived 'close to the earth' to where humanity is now somehow it has come to be accepted in certain circles that these four basics are not to be assumed to be freely available to all who require them. The need for life's basics has become limited by the ability to access them. We are not expected to take them for granted and are being separated from the very basics of the commons without our consent.

This can be seen most clearly where food deprivation is concerned. Malnutrition and hunger are widespread and include millions. Subsistence farmers around the world have been forcibly removed from their land and livelihoods in their hundreds of thousands by agribusinesses and compliant governments. Wars, too, have seen millions uprooted and displaced. Water deprivation and pollution is affecting millions of individuals and thousands of communities negatively. Air pollution is a serious and growing health problem for the whole world's population.

(These three areas have been covered extensively in many articles – posted on this blog and published in Socialist Standard in print and online here )

As for the sun, who knows what plans lie ahead to restrict our access to that shared resource?

Let's turn now to a 'web of living' and see how our communities, both local and global, are linked and interdependent in ways similar to the 'web of life' by looking beyond the purely physiological level to how we might choose to organise our lives for the benefit of all – in stark contrast to how everything is ordered now which is to benefit the few and restrict or deny the majority.

Assuming that we prioritise the four basic necessities and also have some basic accommodation for the time being how can we envisage a 'web of living' within our smaller, local communities and also within and between our much larger regional and global communities that will amply satisfy the multiplicity of our wants, incorporating everything to give a well-balanced and healthy life for all without fear or favour?

Starter List:

Basic services – electricity, energy, water, sewage, communications, transport

Health care - lifelong

Food supply and Distribution - from farm to table

General Supply and Distribution-

Infrastructure – planning, roads, transport,

Manufacturing – local, regional, global,

Building – planning, housing, community facilities,

Sports and Training Facilities -

Entertainment -

Arts facilities- galleries, concert halls,

Environmental care and services-

Administration – included in and linked to all above, incorporating organisation, communication systems, logistics,

This is far from a complete list but is there to be added to. The point being is how we access the services of any of the agencies or individuals above currently. If a trades person's services are required we ask around for recommendations or look online. Problems with one of the utilities ? Make a phone call. We shop in town or online, register with a gym, a health centre or golf club. We eat at home or get a take-away and now and then go to a favourite restaurant.

Who are the people we have contact with in these various activities or transactions? - People who are specifically engaged in the area of work or expertise we are looking for. People not much different from ourselves, who go out on a regular basis to what we call work, or job or profession. Who runs these places of work, manages the transport system, deals with patients on a daily basis, stocks the shelves of the shops, entertains us at the theatre, draws the designs and plans for new housing and then builds them and fits them out, fixes the electrical grid in a storm, takes out that sore tooth, picks the tomatoes or potatoes, collects the trash, cuts your hair, services the car, delivers the post? People like us. We do. We are the ones who keep the whole thing running. Between us we manage the whole affair from start to finish. - And we have access to all of this and more but only if we have the magic password.

We are restricted in our choices by lack of the necessary cash or credit. And the vast majority of the world's population falls into this category – highly restricted choice for severe lack of money.

In the system currently are many inequalities of access both within local communities and between different areas of the world. This manifests itself in many ways and one would need to be both blind and deaf to be unaware of much of it. Money has come to be an essential part of life, in fact of mere existence. Without it you can do almost nothing. It is not a physiological necessity but a false 'need', a manufactured need adding an unnecessary layer to our everyday and lifelong transactions.

There is no way that the current system, capitalism, can be inclusive and offer equal access to all. Full employment and 'fair' wages are a hopeless cause which must surely be widely recognised. Nationalism and its call for manufacturing to stay at home won't fix the problem. Calls like these are red herrings which serve to stop us focussing on the real problem, the elephant in the room, which is the system. The system of profit before people or planet that runs very well for those few at the top of the pyramid. For the rest of us, the ones running the show all around the world, why don't we just expand operations to include all those who currently find themselves surplus to requirements and get on with our organising and managing and doing, - without the money?

Object

The establishment of a system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of the whole community.
http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/our-object-and-declaration-principles