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    "text": "W.E.B. Du Bois, May Day Speech, NYC, 1957\n\n“American socialism should be planned for American conditions... It should demand freedom of thought and speech; freedom to study, travel and learn; and above all, freedom to vote for what we want instead of compulsion to vote for one party under two names”",
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          "alt": "May Day, New York City, 1957\n\nW. E. B. Du Bois\n\n\n\n\nAs I understand it, this is a meeting to advance socialism in this city and nation. It seeks to combine the thinking and efforts of those who believe that the socialist state is the ultimate goal of political action on the part of all men of good will. The differences of opinion as to just what socialism is do not seem to me great enough to hinder joint action toward what all should agree as essential. First, the aim of the state should be the general welfare of its inhabitants and not the private profit of property owners. Secondly, wealth used for the production of wealth, should in most cases be owned by the state and not by individuals. Thirdly, it should be the aim of the state to exact from all work according to ability and to insure them income according to their need. No one for a moment can deny the great difficulty of carrying out such a program. It calls for ability, knowledge, sacrifice and patience. On the other hand, no matter how much in specific times and places we may doubt the ability of human nature to rise to these heights, nevertheless it is equally true that until mankind can approach the ideal of socialism life on this earth for most men will not be worth living.\n\nTo me the problem of taking steps toward socialism in the United States seems fairly simple. We face many and clear evils in this land due to monopoly of natural resources in private hands and to unregulated anarchy of action, which we sometimes miscall individual freedom. This nation is rich in resources, but force, theft, gambling and lying distribute it unjustly in too many cases. As a result, we have many individuals with more wealth than they need or know how to use, while a third of the nation receives less than is necessary to live decently. It is no answer to this arrangement to say that we are better off than the rest of the world. Our well-being may be due in part to the tribute the world pays us and in spite of our failure…",
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          "alt": "Here then is a clear duty for those who think present conditions are unnecessary and can be improved, to think and act on ways of improving them. But as soon as this is suggested, two things happen: first, we are told that improvement is unnecessary and further is impossible. To prove this we are started on an argument about Russia, China, or Hungary. The point of my talk tonight is that this is illogical. I deny the necessity for a magazine devoted to socialism in the United States to send its editors to Hungary. Mississippi would be much more logical. I insist that the study of a socialist program for the United States begins in New York and not in Moscow. I yield to none in my interest in the Soviet Union and my concern for the People’s Republic of China. But that is because of my interest in the Russian and Chinese people. When it comes to the United States that problem must be settled here. Something may be learned from peoples abroad with different histories, cultures and present circumstances, but our main source of information about socialism in America must not continually dissolve into debates over Stalin. \n\nOf course, the real cause of this diversion of attention and fuzzy logic is too often all too clear. It is the inevitable discovery that the cure for the power of corporations in America; the planning for welfare rather than private profit in industry; the re-organization of agriculture and the curb of crime by disciplined labor – that in all these cases, we may see in what the Soviet Union and China have done a pattern of what we must try. And we therefore decide or are forced to decide that anything that succeeds or is said to succeed in Eastern Europe or in Asia must for that reason be bad for America. That is quite as idiotic as assuming without thought or study that what Mao Tse Tung does is suited to our plight in America.\n\nAmerican socialism should be planned for American conditions and to cure American ills. For this purpose, it should demand f…",
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    "createdAt": "2025-05-01T12:47:54.504Z"
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