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The Permanent search for Freedom

Joo Pedro StdileSocial Activist o MST, So Paulo, SP, Brazil

I. When studying the history of humanity andof human beings behaviour, we perceive freedomas the construction of a utopia, a dream linked toliberation! Liberation from what? From all moor-ings that oppress the human being.

If we use historical materialism as a methodof analysis of the evolution of history, -although

there are other not less important methods-, we canperceive that throughout its history humanity hasadopted the most various forms of organisation ofproduction to solve its material problems. Hence, wehad the initial form of tribes and local communities,dened asprimitive communism. The slavery type ofproduction continued, that later developed towards

theeudal and Asian (in Asia and the Americas) typeof production. Finally, as from the XIII Century, wehave seen the appearance ofcapitalism, born fromcommerce and which has gone through many stages,like the industrial capitalism, from the industrial rev-olution of the XVIII Century. By the end of the XIXCentury imperialism develops, as a need of the bigcapitalist companies to emigrate from their countries

to exploit natural resources, manpower and the mar-kets of other peoples. And now, in the last decadesof history, we are living the era of theglobalisationo the fnancial capital and of the transnational com-panies over all the world economy.

Throughout the XX Century many peoples havemade social revolutions with the dream of overcom-

ing capitalism and have started a transition to so-cialism. In some countries this experience has beeninterrupted and they have gone back to capitalism.In others, they have made changes, they resist andcontinue ghting with the challenge of buildinganother way of production that may overcome thebasis of capitalism.

II. The history of political regimes created byhumanity to organise power in society has gonethrough many and different experiences. At thebeginning, with small groups and clans, chietaincy

and physical force predominated. Later it evolvedtowards kingdoms and monarchies, where hereditarycharacter dened absolute and centralised pow-ers, always supported by military force or by falsedoctrines of superiority of the sovereigns over thepopulation.

This was so until with industrial capitalism there

was a social revolution of the bourgeoisie, as a newdominant class which tried to impose a republicansystem, in which supposedly all persons would havethe same rights and obligations in the organisationof the political power. In most countries, however,organised electoral systems cannot truly record thewill of the majority, and elections are manipulated in

many ways, with the powers of the economy, money,religions, prejudices, or the concentrated power ofthe mass media. Even after the bourgeois revolution,that pretended to organise society in a more demo-cratic way, dictatorial regimes have abounded in theentire world until today, controlling the State at theservice of one class or of a group interests.

III. Observing this economic and political his-tory of humanity, a primary thread is perceived: inall stages there were contradictions that causedchanges. Nothing was eternal or absolute. Contradic-tions always appeared, crisis, mobilisations of thepeople, and changes. And after them, a new stage,that surpassed the previous one. In this way, over

and over again.These dialectic contradictions that are generated

in time and space are determined by the objectiveconditions with which society goes organising pro-duction of goods it needs to survive and progress.And they are generated also by the subjective condi-tions, by the level of knowledge and of consciencethat develops in the people. These subjective condi-

tions, related to the degree of social conscience thatdevelops in certain stages in the history of a society,are directly related with the permanent search forfreedom of the human being.

Translationb

yAliceMndez

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IV. But, what freedom is that? The human beinglooks for freedom according to his class condition,the one he belongs to. A bourgeois owner o land,commerce and factories, will answer, that his free-dom is his right to private property, only his, and to

do what he wants with those material possessions,which, although they are the result of a social pro-duction, collective from thousands of workers, heconsiders only he, the owner, has the freedom of do-ing whatever he wants with them. Even dismiss theworkers from their jobs!

A middle class petit bourgeois, will measure his

freedom by the right to go and come, to go sightsee-ing, to travel to any place he wants, summarisingfreedom simply as a right of free expression.

And the workers, the great majority of the worldpopulation, who survive every day by working, so asto feed themselves and reproduce in their families,what would they say is freedom? Freedom for thegreat majority of the world population probably is

the right not to be humiliated; not to be oppressed;not to be exploited, not to be ill-treated. It is theright to live in peace. This means the right to havea decent job and justly remunerated, from the richeshe produces. It is the right to have sanitary hous-ing conditions where he can care for his family withdignity.

For the poorest population that lives in the out-skirts of great cities or in poverty areas away fromurban centres, lacking the necessary goods for adignied social reproduction and deprived even fromthe knowledge of the reason of their existence, prob-ably the word freedom has no signicance. Becausethe society in which they live transformed them inpersons devoid of values and dreams. Their survival

condition is levelled to that of animals: having theright to be fed! In this case, freedom starts in theright of daily bread.

In these circumstances in which thousands o hu-man beings are suering the crisis o capitalism, free-dom means the right to work. Work not as the condi-tion of being exploited by someone, of transferring

our energies, those that produce goods, to someoneelse to appropriate them. But work as a situation ofpersonal realisation of our skills, our energies, ouractive participation in any society. Finally, work, thededication of hours of our time lived, are the princi-

pal way of participation as partners in society. Free-dom is having the right to work; being someone inthe concert of our society. With no right to work, weare not partners in society, we are outcasts support-ed by others and therefore humiliated by the rest.

V. Freedom should be the right to knowledge,culture, education, as a gate to everything that hu-manity learnt and registered throughout its history.

Freedom is overcoming the law of capital exploi-tation, which appropriates the days of work and theriches created by it, to accumulate goods and politi-

cal power.Freedom is being able to choose authentic politi-cal representatives, who can perform public func-tions on their behalf, but respecting the delegatedwill. And the right to revoke that delegation at anytime.

Freedom is the right to organise ways of collec-tive decisions, of effective popular participation, in

the management of all public property.Freedom is having the right to a time for culture

and leisure, for the intellect, the spirit, reection.Freedom is the right to think with our own head!

Freedom is overcoming the mediocrity of preju-dices and discriminations that change the differentinto worse. Or even into enemies!

Freedom is being aware that all human beings aregenetically and spiritually equal. And, therefore, ourdifferences in sexual options, colour of skin, ethnicorigin, size or weight, vocations and personal skills,are just qualities, not deciencies.

Freedom is the utopia that all human beingsacknowledge and are aware that we need to live in asociety where we are all equal.

Thus, freedom is the permanent search of autopian society. Not as an impossible dream, butas a continuous process perfecting life in society.Away from the collective, the social, the community,coexistence with our brothers, there is no society,no freedom, just an opportunist and ignorant indi-vidualism. History of humanity is the history of

the construction of freedom, the ght for a societywhere all human beings are totally free. With itscontradictions, challenges and recoils, but alwaysfollowing that path, until one day we reach thePromised Land of parusia, of Freedom! q