If you're deaf, dumb, and blind to what's happening in the
world, you're under no obligation to do anything. But if you know what's
happening and you don't do anything but sit back idly then you are complicit in
the exploitation and oppression taking place. It is already clear that business
as usual is leading toward catastrophic collapse of the natural eco-systems
that billions of people depend upon for their livelihood. Social and
environmental problems are not accidental, but are direct consequences of our
capitalist system of production and consumption. The logic of profit is to
clear-cut every tree and move on to the next forest. Greenhouse gases will increase as long as our
economy depends on fossil fuels, controlled by some of the wealthiest corporations
in history. Converting the whole economy to recycle materials and use renewable
energy, abandoning fossil fuel investments, would impose huge costs on business
budgets. Under capitalism, decisions on what and how to produce are made by
owners and executives maximising profits by increasing sales and decreasing
costs. Securing an environmentally sustainable production system will require
fundamental political and social change. Human and environmental needs can be
brought into sustainable balance only if production and distribution takes
account of all environmental consequences. This requires conscious planning and
foresight. For all the impacts to be
taken into account, the people affected must participate in planning and
decision-making. Rather than trying to just patch up a system that isn't
working, let's work for a system that really meets human needs.
Another world is really possible. Imagine a world guided by
a "caring economics." Complete detailed “blueprints” are both
impossible and unnecessary but the project of elaborating on the outlines of a
future socialist society is essential. A sustainable economy requires
production to be democratically planned and controlled by well-informed people.
The environment can be sustained by sharing of resources and by cooperation
rather than acquisition and competition.
We call this socialism.
After socialism is achieved there will be an initial period of
rapid expansion to provide a decent way of life for those currently in poverty
and destitution, a steady state society will emerge where the enormous power of
planning, combined with the release of human resourcefulness will enable huge
steps to be taken to preserve the environment. What will it actually consist
of? It involves allocating resources of labour and materials for the production
of goods and services for the benefit of society as a whole, rather than to
make profits for the capitalists. It will operate at three levels, locally
regionally and globally and will be implemented either industrially or at the
individual enterprise.
Since Marx’s day, economists and academics have written
books about why socialism cannot work. One of those criticisms is that planning
the efficient allocation of resources is impossible because of the vast
complexity of modern industrial society where millions of economic transactions
take place every day. However most of these economic interactions are between
enterprises, they do not involve consumers, and it is quite clear that present
day multinational corporations conduct planning of a similar complexity to that
required by socialism all the time. The activity of the multinational companies
answers a further criticism that the operation of supply and demand to
determine price is the only efficient way to proceed in the exchange of goods.
In their operations companies simply allocate resources between factories
without reference to the market. Boeing uses central planning to develop and
build new airplane designs, when a sky scraper in built it's based on central
planning. Central planning brings water to your house and empties it back out
to the sewer. What planning isn't central? It's the only way planning can be
done, otherwise CEOs couldn't run their company, you would get airplanes that
couldn't fly, skyscrapers that collapse and sewage backup. Yes, there will be a
need central planning in socialism! But since
the system will decentralised, all of the day to day planning on energy
production, manufacturing, food harvesting, etc., is done locally and
automatically, based on algorithms and feedback loops. There really isn't that
much for a command economy commissar type to screw up, and actually, there
isn't any room for a government bureaucrat.
As far as planning for consumer needs are concerned the key
point is that means exist that can respond to their demands. Today, supermarkets
use bar-codes and scan the consumers’ purchases and technology link that to
their warehouses and these in turn are connected to suppliers and growers. It
is an automatic process. In addition to this, techniques such as market
research and using the internet feedback will make the tasks faced by future
socialist planners enormously easier. It is important, though, not to
exaggerate the role that will be played by the internet or look for a ‘technical
fix’- the existence of democratic institutions such as consumer co-operatives will
be paramount. The role of democratically elected and powerful consumer bodies
will also make sure that shoddy goods are not produced and quality is
maintained. Here as well, the advances in modern production management
techniques can be applied, since the future socialist society will inherit a culture,
associated with the highest levels of technique developed by capitalism of the
“the customer comes first.” Planned obsolescence will itself become an obsolete
concept, where good will be designed and made to be recyclable and repairable.
The condition of the environment will not be subject to the whim of the
capitalist market, where it will always have a low priority.
The Socialist Party hopes to connect the struggle at the
ballot box of today with the struggle for a socialism that is implemented once
victory is won.
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