Success is Socialism

There exists no definition of socialism that is generally understood and accepted. The dilemma of socialism today is first of all the dilemma of the meaning of socialism, because the term has been applied to such an all-encompassing range of persons, parties, philosophies, states, and social systems, often completely antagonistic to each other, that the very term ‘socialism’ has become virtually meaningless. ‘Socialism’ has become another name for another form of capitalism. The temptation is strong to abandon the label entirely, to adopt some new term to indicate the kind of social change we propose. But to do so would be to attempt to side-step the problem. Since the main challenge to capitalism has always come from that which called itself socialism, the intellectual harlots of capitalist ideology empty the word of all meaning and purpose, denying the very possibility of an alternative to this system, hoping to bury of all its revolutionary content. We have to take the word ‘socialism’ back, for without words there can be no concepts, and where there is no language of freedom, there can be no dream of liberation. We cannot simply abdicate the terminology of socialism and arbitrarily invent new labels. To do so would be futile, because any new terms will be similarly sucked dry if they acquire popular recognition. Words such as ‘socialism’, ‘revolution’, ‘democracy’, and ‘freedom’ do contain within themselves a critique of the existing order. That critique can be realized only by reconquering it and giving it new life, not by abandoning it and searching for another. For this reason, we continue with the term ‘socialism’, but ensuring that we give its proper meaning so people understand exactly what we mean by it.

Today humanity faces a global crisis stemming from the incredible rapacity of the capitalist system. There is catastrophic climate change which threatens to end life on our planet.  Socialism offers the best hope for humanity. We think a society run by people themselves, freed from both bosses and bureaucrats, would be far more democratic and liberating than capitalism ever has been.  We think that a society premised upon the enhancement of life rather than the perpetuation of profit would stand the best chance of putting a halt to the environmental devastation now ravishing the globe. Socialists often talked about capitalism's ‘contradictions’ but never have they been more painfully in evidence than right than now.  Millions find no work while manufacturing plants lie idle.  Fortunes are spent on high-tech weapons to bomb homes while homeless people sleep in doorways. The hungry rummage through garbage bins outside of supermarkets with well-stocked shelves. People starve while big grain corporations hoard their surpluses in their storehouses. White-collar criminals in the banking and finance industry are rewarded with huge bonuses. Agri-business pushes millions of small farmers and peasants off the land, destroys life-sustaining topsoil, creates vegetables without taste or nutritional value, and sprays farmworkers with carcinogenic pesticides. The result is system ruled by insanity, obsessed with acquisition and accumulation that it will leave the planet a wasteland. It may be hard to believe, but there is a method to this madness: it lies in the basic dynamics of capitalist society, which is organised for profit above all else.

Socialists use the term ‘social revolution’ in a very precise way. Whereas reforms are changes within an existing social and economic system, social revolutions make a sharp break from one social system to another. A socialist revolution would end the private ownership of the factories, mines, transportation and offices by a tiny clique of capitalists. Some politicians imagine that changing the tax code or campaigning for finance reforms will fix the ill of the social system.  But the cause is much deeper than bad policy or poor decisions, and will not be solved by tinkering around the edges. Nor is the problem an evil plot, as some on both left and right have alleged.  Powerful people frequently benefit from social inequality, economic waste and ecological degradation, but under capitalism such things happen whether or not anyone plans them.  At fault is not a calculating conspiracy but the very driving force of capitalism: the relentless pursuit of private profit. Capitalism is a generalized regime of commodity production characterised by market exchange, including the purchase and sale of labor power.  Production under capitalism is organised for private profit, which is extracted from workers' labor and realised in the sale of goods at the highest allowable price. This system of social and property relations works to benefit a ruling class made up of owners, financiers, merchants and executives who control key institutions of production and exchange: banks, insurance companies, stock exchanges, service concerns such as airlines and trucking, extractive industries such as coal and oil, and manufacturers and distributors of commodities like cars, computers and toothpaste.  This ruling class appropriates the surplus of the value created by the working class - the majority of us, whose living comes not from owning capital but from working for those who do. By virtue of its dominant social position the ruling class has a common and basic interest in defending private property and maximising profit rates.  But it is not a giant conspiracy. Sometimes real differences emerge in its ranks.  Sectors of capital clash over appropriate measures for the maintenance of profit rates, and they enter into political contest by underwriting different candidates in elections and lobbying for different public policy measures.  Precisely through the open expression of such differences, consensus is established within the dominant class. The capitalists may feel the effects of crises and competition but as a class, capitalists continue to do well and they rarely suffer like those of us at the bottom of society.

Although to many people the prospect of a revived socialist movement seems but a pipe dream, capitalism is showing its impracticality and obsolescence in a host of ways. A rebirth of socialism is possible, just as periods of calm in the past have been interrupted by resurgences of radicalism and militancy. Many reservations that people hold about socialism are the result of a perfectly reasonable revulsion against the monstrosities which have masquerades as ‘socialism’. Around the world, countries ruled by single parties and dictatorial autocrats draped themselves with the trappings of Marx, minuscule groups announced themselves ‘the vanguard’ of the working class with  some supposedly standing for equality, worshipping authoritarian leaders and stifling democratic norms under the name ‘democratic centralism’. Socialism is a vision of a new world, based on one central conviction: that human beings can construct a society without exploitation and oppression through, and only through, the maximum extension of democratic control. The emancipation of humanity from capitalism will only come about when workers act in the offices, factories and streets on their own behalf. It cannot be achieved through any shortcut, though many have been tried.

The paradox of reformism is that it's not the way to win reforms, especially in periods of crisis, when the system's ability to absorb demands is minimal, substantial social gains can only be won through the militant collective action of working people and mass movements aiming at the democratic conquest of social power.  The aim of socialism can be sacrificed at crucial moments to the error of moderation and gradualism. We don't object to reformism because it advocates reforms, but because it has such a sorry record for obtaining them.  We have no callous desire to ‘bring the system down’ by letting people starve, as is sometimes attributed to revolutionaries.  On the contrary, we aim to show people that by organising and struggling, they can win. We try to generate a common political orientation. The main reason to join a socialist organisation, of course, is work for socialism. The abolition of class rule and establishment of workers' democracy will not come about unless there are socialists organised to push for it. Through debate and analysis, socialists help one another understand what's happening in the world. We need your participation, talents and ideas. Join us.