Looking Forward

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.