'It's The Best Capitalism Can Do:' Activist On Holiday Charities

WILL COUNTY, IL — Food Drives. Toy Drives. Fundraisers for cancer treatments and silent auctions for the homeless. During the holiday season there's no shortage of opportunities for people in the western suburbs to help their fellow man. But as groups and individuals go on about their altruistic efforts, some troubling questions inevitably emerge: What happens when the holidays are over? Is one act of kindness really enough to change peoples' lives? Why do people even need charity in the first place?

These are the questions, among others, that local activist Tom Wojcik said he asked himself while growing up in Naperville. After a lifetime of looking for answers, he has a lot to say.

"I was born and bred in Naperville, which is a pretty affluent community, but I also spent a fair amount of time in Joliet - my grandparents live in Joliet - and it was impressed on me at a very early age that these were two very different communities," he said. "I started to question why they were so different and that eventually led to me reading some theory, connecting some dots."

Today, Wojcik is on the Steering Committee of the West Suburban Illinois branch of the national activism and political education group known as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), which operates in DuPage, Will, Kendall, Kane, Grundy and other counties. In recent years the DSA has become one of the country's fastest-growing political organizations, ballooning from about 6,000 members in 2015 to almost 60,000 members in 2019; its popularity driven by political figures like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

As its name suggests, the organization aims to advance the cause of socialism in the U.S. Socialism is a political and economic system wherein workers have democratic control and ownership of their workplaces, and economic activity is incentivized by community needs. This is opposed to capitalism, where workplaces are owned by private entities, and economic activity is driven by the pursuit of profits. It's a philosophy that is seeing a resurgence in Europe and America in response to growing concerns over capitalism's long term feasibility.

"The old Rosa Luxemburg quote is, 'it's either socialism or barbarism,' and that's not just a slogan, it's not just words in a book," Wojcik said. "I truly believe we're approaching the point where those will be the two options."

Since joining DSA, Wojcik has worked as an educator, teaching others about different socialist thinkers and theories. The nature of charity, as it exists in the U.S.' current capitalist economy, is not something he's ignored.

"I think altruism is an extremely human, regular instinct." he said. "You know, you see people having a hard time and you reach out to them... but if we're talking about institutional charity, the systems that are set up for the very very wealthy to donate to the very very poor... it started in the early days of capitalism."

Specifically, he added, it was a way for the early titans of industry to protect themselves.

"18th century, 19th century, capitalists pretty much did they wanted. They owned all the industries, they took whatever money they saw fit... it didn't really occur to anyone to give charity on an institutional level," Wojcik said. "Then in the days of robber barons... these were days of pretty fertile class antagonism. The lower classes tried to preserve their best interests against such obscene avarice. So people like Rockefeller started to think, 'well in order to preserve what we have, we need to give the illusion that the lower classes need us to advance their lives,' despite the fact that they were responsible for poverty."

In this way, charity - for all the good it may do in the moment - can take on an insidious element. A way, Wojcik alleged, for the wealthy to wash away their guilt and alleviate public scrutiny.

"For instance, Jeff Bezos recently was lauded for giving $98 million dollars [to charity]... Well, that was calculated to be about .09% of his net worth. Comparably speaking, an average person walking around the street gives far more percentage of their income to the poor."

On a local level, the different clubs and people organizing charity events may not be trying to deflect poor public opinion, but Wojcik said they should recognize that even their best-intended efforts are short-term solutions to long term problems.

"If we're talking about charity under capitalism, this is truly the best that capitalism can do... But it's not a horizontal approach. Charity does require an underclass," he said, adding that by its very nature, capitalism creates the conditions for both extreme wealth and extreme poverty - the very conditions that make charity a necessity in people's lives. "Tipping a few bread crumbs aside to the poor every Christmas; it's one thing to look at that, it's another thing to look at how effective that strategy actually is [at improving people's lives]."

The seasonal aspect of holiday charity is another weakness of the approach, Wojcik said.

"The good will runs dry... That's the problem with charity, even on a local level. If we're relying only on good will, on the whims of the better-off, I think we're going to be very disappointed," he said.

Wojcik said he hoped people were receptive to this message, but also added he knows it's not that simple. For some, especially older west suburbs residents who grew up during the height of the Cold War and anti-soviet propaganda, 'socialism' is still a scary word, associated with gulags and famine. For others, it's an aggressive word, a challenge to a status quo in which they are comfortable. Several candidates for the upcoming state congressional elections - including James Marter running in the 14th District and Krishna Bansal running in the 11th - have overtly made opposing socialism a part of their campaign platforms.

"Something that I've always said is I invite people to examine the alternatives... I invite people to ask the question, 'what has capitalism done for them lately?'" Wojcik said, reckoning with these facts. "I invite them to examine the historic, unprecedented disparity of wealth that we haven't seen since the Gilded Age in this country, I invite them to look at the Forever Wars we're engaged in, I invite them to just examine the nature of employment in this day and age... you don't have to crack open a book to see the failures of capitalism in this society."

Wojcik encouraged residents of the western suburbs interested in social and economic justice to visit the local West Suburban DSA chapter. Monthly meetings are on the second Sunday of the month in the College of DuPage cafeteria at 425 Fawell Blvd, Glen Ellyn.

"I encourage people to continue passing the hat or going to soup kitchens, but with the understanding that that won't be enough until capitalism is replaced with a more equitable system," he said, later adding, "I would also invite people to show up to events, get to know who socialists really are, not just who the media says they are."