For the past two months, youngsters have been canvassing my neighborhood to raise money for their schools. Tonight is Halloween, and they will be at my door again, asking for donations for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). I did this myself as a youngster, and yet the need persists because fundraising cannot solve the problems it claims to solve.

Children are encouraged to take part in fundraising activities in order to demonstrate social responsibility. The message is that you cannot change the world, but you can make a difference in some people’s lives. I have three problems with this:

First: the work that we do every day could provide for human needs: feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, treating the sick, and raising living standards. Instead, the surplus produced by working people is confiscated by the bosses to fund their lavish lifestyles and to support a class system that deprives the majority of what they need.

Second: the billions of tax dollars that flow from workers’ paychecks into government coffers could be funding social services that promote health and well-being. Instead, this money is used to subsidize corporate profits and fund wars of acquisition that spread death, destruction, and disease.

Third: at home, at work, in stores, and on the street; working people are asked to pay out-of-pocket to subsidize a capitalist system that refuses to meet people’s needs. And we do. Individuals contribute far more to charities than do corporations. However, the more we give to charity, the more the capitalists can keep for themselves.

The working-class pay three times: producing surplus that is taken by the capitalist class instead of being used to meet human needs; paying taxes that support the capitalist class instead of meeting human needs; and donating to charity, instead of making the rich and powerful pay for the misery they create.

We do not need charity, we need justice. If the global wealth produced in 2005 alone were divided by the world’s population, every person on the planet would have $9,212, or $36,848 for every family of four. There would be more to share if everyone who wanted to work were employed. And if people in poor nations had access to the same production methods used in rich nations, world production would triple, providing every individual with a yearly minimum of $27,636, or every family of four with more than $110,554.

Mass deprivation persists because the elite hoard the wealth then moan that there is not enough to go around. They lie.

By standing together, we can claim the abundance that rightfully belongs to all. That is the message all children need to hear. We can change the world – through solidarity, not charity.