A small audience gathered last night in the Crane Room for a speech by Chris Loughlin, an Irish college student sponsored by Socialist International, an international interest group. Tufts is but one stop on his American tour.
Calling the assembled students his "comrades," Loughlin detailed how socialism can be applied globally to solve international problems.
Loughlin, a student at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, began his half-hour-long speech by introducing the Socialist Party as "an alternative to two corporate parties, [which serve] two corporate Americas." He argued in favor of social movements like this year's revolt in France against a law that made it easier for businesses to fire younger workers.
Loughlin also praised people in Latin American countries for resisting what he called "neo-liberal public education reforms." Loughlin defined neo-liberalism as "policies of imperialism, privatization, and trade blocs."
"Neo-liberalism is any anti-working-class policy," he said.
Loughlin criticized U.S. policy in Lebanon, Iraq, and Nigeria.
"Thousands are dead in the name of corporate oil," he said. He pointed out that, as American oil prices and death tolls rise, "Shell made the biggest oil profit in history last year."
At the core of Loughlin's critiques of the world's problems was his fundamental objection to capitalism. "It is not socialists who created the fact that there is a capitalist class that owns most of the wealth in the world and a working class that performs most of the labor," he said.
Loughlin did not argue that organizations like Wal-Mart should not exist. Instead, "the Wal-Marts, McDonalds, and Dells should be taken over by the population and run for the good of the community."
Loughlin then turned his argument against capitalism away from America, criticizing capitalism for causing global problems. He called global capitalism "a race to the bottom-a race to see who will pay the least to make profit." As a result of this race, Loughlin said, countries like China that lead the world in exports also pay their workers unfairly low wages.
After Loughlin made his speech, graduate student and Tufts Socialist Club member Dan DiMaggio, who introduced Loughlin, thanked him and encouraged the audience to ask questions. Instead of a typical question-and-answer format, Loughlin favored a more communal discussion, in which he encouraged the audience members to respond to each others' questions before he answered.
Though an unlikely character to be on a financially-backed nationwide speaking tour, the tall, lanky Loughlin made it clear who the authority on socialism was.
CORRECTION: In the front-page article entitled, "Loughlin pitches global Socialism to Tufts students," the sending organization of Chris Loughlin, the speaker who visited the Crane Room to speak on the benefits of an international socialist system, was misidentified as Socialist International. The organization's correct name is Socialist Alternative.
