“History makes our job easier because capitalism has proven to be a more moral system,” stated Pettyjohn in presenting the Republicans’ side in the debate. “It promotes productivity and efficiency, while socialism creates apathy, dependency, and eliminates the individual incentive.”

He said capitalism has improved conditions in Third World countries by providing jobs and raising living conditions. “Instead of ‘Workers of the world unite!’” he said, quoting Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels, founders of the communist movement, “today we should say, ‘workers of the world unite for global capitalism—you have nothing to lose but your poverty.’”

O’Shaughnessy, speaking for the Young Socialists, began explaining the rise of class society and the struggles between contending classes along the historical march toward socialism. The fight for socialism, he said, “is the only way forward for workers, farmers, and youth today seeking to escape the horrors of capitalism.” He pointed to the ongoing resistance by working people in the United States, including union-organizing struggles and the massive demonstrations taking place across the country by immigrant workers for amnesty and legalization.

Noting that he had visited Cuba last summer, the Young Socialist said workers and farmers there had overthrown a U.S.-backed dictatorship in 1959 and began a socialist revolution in the interests of the vast majority. “Cuba offers a selfless example of proletarian internationalism around the world today,” he said.

Several rounds of discussion followed. “What about religious freedom in Cuba?” one student asked. “If socialism is so great, then explain what happened in China during the Great Leap Forward or the gulags in the Soviet Union?” another asked. “Why does capitalism breed economic depressions and wars?”

Young Socialist Terlizzi explained that the former Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China are not examples of communism. The Stalinist, bureaucratic regimes there, he said, represent the opposite of Cuba’s revolutionary leadership and its course of relying on the conscious organization and mobilization of working people to transform their conditions. He added that while “the hold of religion is declining around the world, people can freely practice religion in Cuba today.”

One person in the audience asked a question about the immigration debate taking place within the U.S. ruling class.

“The Mexican government has a policy of exporting its poverty to the United States,” said Rozea. “I agree with the Sensenbrenner bill—they [undocumented immigrants] are all felons for being in the U.S. illegally.”

“I disagree,” said fellow college Republican Pettyjohn. “I am more in favor of the McCain-Kennedy bill, where these immigrants would pay fines to stay and work.”

The Young Socialists panelists called for immediate legalization and permanent residency for all immigrants, explaining that this struggle was in the interests of all working people.

Maura DeLucais a member of the Young Socialists.  
 
 
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