Needs Over Wants – A Personal Account

I'd like to make note of my own goals as a member of the Australian Communist Party. They’re not specifically the Party's goals, although they most likely overlap in many ways.

For far too long I was sitting uneasily in a society where it was the norm for people to make their frantic grabs at what they wanted, whether it was through climbing the corporate ladder, entrepreneurship, or finding their own new and improved way to profit off of someone else’s labour, regardless of those who would be left without.

Blind self-interest has well and truly been allowed to take hold of the souls of a large portion of our population, especially among our working-class brothers and sisters who have been deluded with the idea that, one day, they will be pulled free from this mess that has been left for us and allowed a place amongst the ranks of the ruling class. This imaginary life is one of leisure, free from the cares about unpaid rent, mounting bills, tedious work or stints of unemployment.

In this desperate money-grab that we have named capitalism, it's dangerously easy to lose sight of our community and those in need, leading us down a path of gluttony and excess. We strictly avoid thinking too much about those we’ve left in the dust, so as to prevent the onslaught of guilt that is due for anyone who still has their humanity intact. I see it in friends, I see it in family – this strong urge to avoid the topic because anything is better than the crushing feeling that they’re not giving enough to their community.

Unfortunately, instead of turning around and giving back to the class and community that raised them and allowed them to be where they are today, those horrible feelings turn them even further away until they’re locked within their gated property. They judge their family and loved ones for needing “handouts”, and telling everyone to just pull themselves up by their bootstraps which of course is, as they believe, how they managed to reach where they are. Not off the backs of others, nor help from someone else who has done exactly as they have done, nor dumb luck. They tend to truly believe that they fairly earned what they have gained.

I was in this boat too, admittedly. I believed one day I could trick the system, work my way to the top, or become some innovator of the “free market”. But through the help of many invaluable comrades along the way, I was able to realise: “So what?” So what if I succeeded? So what if I accumulated more wealth than I knew what to do with?

“What I want more than anything is the ability to provide, Marxist-Leninists recognise this basic need to work for the collective good”

As we see with today’s billionaires, one may have gained ridiculous material wealth, but they’ve lost their soul to greed somewhere along the way. That kind of excess maddens a person, to the point that they will forget the very civilisation that allowed them to reach those levels of gluttony. I truly do still believe that I was capable of someday “hitting the big time”, but I realised that that wasn’t what I ultimately wanted.

What I want more than anything is the ability to provide. Marxist-Leninists recognise this basic need to work for the collective good. To ignore the people desperately reaching for their wants, and focus on the people who have needs that aren’t being addressed. Whether it’s food, shelter, or just my time that’s needed, I want to have the means to give anything that is of need freely. The ACP is an incredible facilitator when it comes to this. Not only does this drive in me align with the Party’s motives, it is willing to assist me and my comrades in providing to others, as any true Communist organisation should and will.

What the Party and I strive to achieve is a society where no person is left worrying for themselves and choosing to ignore those around them. Our vision is for people to be secure in the knowledge that they will be protected and cared for by their community that they protect and care for as well, no matter how much they are able to contribute. This contribution is not in return for a benefit, but as a factor of human nature. From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.