Growing numbers of people are concerned about the state of
the world and the fate of the planet. Do things have to be this way? No, there
is a real world alternative: socialism. Granted none of us will live to see
Socialism, and like millions before us we will probably die without seeing that
really better world we long and struggle for. The vision of a socialist Utopia
was around long before Marx and continues to this day, although today it exists
only by a thread. We all know that Marx founded “scientific socialism” in order
to replace “Utopian socialism”, but as a matter of fact, he had some pretty
complimentary things to say about Owen, Fourier and Co. We all know that for
Marx the foundation of socialism was not the counterposing to the real of an
imaginary Utopia, but rather a critique of existing social conditions. This is
the great contribution that Marx made to the world. There are people hungering
for an alternative to this system. We are bombarded with the idea that there is
no alternative, that capitalism is the natural order of things. We are told
that as much as capitalism has problems, any attempts to get rid of it will
make things far worse.
We live in a world in which 35,000 children die each and
every day of malnutrition and preventable disease. We live in a world system in
which the three richest Americans control assets exceeding the combined gross
domestic product of the 40 poorest countries in the world. We live on a planet
whose ecosystems is threatened by the blind workings of an economic system that
takes profit as its measure and motor of development. The question is: Do we
have to live this way? Can you really radically change things? But it is a
problem if people think they have a basis for an opinion about the desirability
or viability of socialism, first you need to know what it is. Imagine a society
where people consciously learn about and transform the world...where people are
no longer imprisoned by the chains of tradition and ignorance...where people
not only cooperatively work to produce the necessities of life, but get into
art and culture and science—and have fun doing it...where the scientific
outlook and the flight of imagination strengthen and inspire each other...where
there is unity and diversity, far-ranging debate, and ideological struggle over
the direction and development of society—but no longer stamped by social
antagonism...where people interact with each other based on mutual respect,
concern, and love for humanity. A world that cares about and takes care of the
environment. That is socialism.
Socialism is a worldwide society and a community of freely
associating human beings — and it is yet to be achieved—in which all classes
and class distinctions have been overcome; all systems and relations of
exploitation abolished; all oppressive social institutions and relations of
social inequality, like racial discrimination and the domination of women by
men, put an end to; and oppressive and backward ideas and values cast off. Socialism
is a world of abundance, where people together hold all of society's resources
in common. Socialism is not some sort of wishful and airy dream or utopia. The
productive forces of society—not just machinery, equipment, and technology but
also people and their knowledge—have developed to a level that can allow
humanity to overcome scarcity, to provide for people's basic material needs,
and beyond that to have a large surplus left over to devote to the all-around
and future development of society. The productive forces of society are highly
socialized. They require thousands and ultimately millions working together to
mass-produce the things—whether we are talking about clothing or computers—that
are used by people throughout society. And these productive forces are highly interconnected
on an international level: raw materials and transistors and machine tools
produced in one part of the world enter into the production process in other
parts of the world. But these socialized productive forces are privately
controlled. A capitalist class of owners appropriates the results of production
as private, capitalist property. This is the fundamental problem in the world.
And this is what socialism solves. People are unleashed to run and transform
society. This is a society in which you want and need. People must feel that
they have room to disagree with those in authority. And socialist society must
make available the resources and outlets, so people can express these views.
Socialist society is organized to achieve the goal of abolishing all classes
and class distinctions; overcoming all systems and relations of exploitation;
overcoming all oppressive social institutions and relations enabling people to
cast off all oppressive and enslaving ideas and values.
We should not assume that such a future socialist society
would be without conflicts between people or without problems. Socialism don’t
make all problems disappear and create a perfect world; they only solve those
problems which stem from class-based society and specifically, capitalism.
Mankind already faces many challenges which are not a direct result of
capitalism, yet cannot be solved because of capitalism’s peculiarities.
Socialism does not automatically solve these issues, but rather it merely
removes the barriers to solving them. There are some who wish to sell the
workers an ideal Utopia. The Keynesians believe free-market principles plus
prudent government intervention and regulation will simultaneously delivering
hefty profits to the capitalist class and social welfare benefits to the
poorest. While others of the more right-wing “libertarian” variety promise that
the elimination of virtually all government interference with the market will
lead to widespread prosperity, an idea which is not much more ludicrous than
the previous. The more progressive of the dreamers offer us future communities
based on state ownership, both national and municipal, plus cooperatives and
worker-owned enterprises , with little explanations as to how they will be
achieved and with few ideas of how to put such into practice that can put a
dent in capitalist global domination.
We must dream socialist dreams. It’s the dreams of the
future that give us the strength to fight in the present. The goal of socialism
and of the struggle of the working class is freedom. Freedom from hunger and
poverty, freedom endless toil, from exploitation, freedom from war, from racism
and sexism, freedom to live without the supervision of the state - these are
the freedoms.
The purpose of production in socialism is to produce
products to meet the needs of the people. Thus, socialism represents a
fundamental change in the capitalist relations of production: it is the
opposite of capitalism which exists to make profits for the few. State
ownership simply means that the state has effective control over the means of
production and in no way implies a change in the relations of production. Marx
distinguished judicial change of ownership from real change in the relations of
production. He cared little of who actually had the property deeds to an
enterprise which was merely the legal aspect, not the real form. There is also
a myth that in the capitalist countries there is a "free enterprise
system" which solely relies on the market mechanism to function. Planning
is not the opposite of market, the two complement each other in a capitalist
system. State participation in economic planning is extensive. Government
intervention either through ownership or planning, cannot, however, change the
fundamental nature of capitalism. Many reformists have the wishful thinking
that the state can play a major role in altering the purpose of production from
capital accumulation to meeting the needs of the people. They fail to realise
that capital accumulation is fundamental to the capitalist system; it cannot be
altered at will. Instead, the state plays an important role in facilitating the
accumulation of capital.
No comments:
Post a Comment