Revolution - The Only Solution.

It is argued by many that although the present social order is undoubtedly exploitative and cruel, any attempt to create a new system of equality and freedom is doomed to fail because it is contrary to the unchangeable features of human nature and that the division of society into rulers and ruled, exploiters and exploited is inevitable because it rests on the ‘natural’ order of things. These nay-sayers tell us that there will always be some elite, (bureaucrats or technocrats) who will corrupt the revolution for their own ends and they will succeed because ordinary people are too conditioned and too dumb to construct and run socialist society – they require to be led by the intellectuals towards the promised land because the working class cannot emancipate itself. The ruling class justifies their privileged position since it is due to their personal superiority and that no other better system is possible because the masses are inferior. If their rule is sometimes hard, cruel and unfair, that is unfortunate but there no alternative.

People would not work if they were not paid for it, and they would grab whatever they could get if they did not have to pay for it, is the first and understandable response when socialists talk about a new society that is free from wages, free from money, free from private property, free from prices. Today, we are dominated by a way of thinking that is determined because we still live in a market exchange economy. When production is geared to social needs rather than profits, it is quite feasible that we can live and work without compulsion and to voluntarily contribute to the well-being of all to the best of our ability while in return freely accessing the collective fruits of everybody’s labour according to our needs.

 Some radical activists imagine that everybody will discuss everything locally and then each enterprise will set to producing goods to be able to exchange their products to supply each other’s needs and to satisfy the community’s requirements. Actually, things will not be so simple, and any attempt to realise that vision would only mean preserving market relations between independent enterprises, still not working to a common social plan. Those who call for shop-floor and assembly-line democracy should be aware that these by itself cannot transform capitalist social relations into co-operative ones. Too often we have witnessed the take-over of work-places by workers with no conception but to run it at a smaller scale of production, for it to be more “human” as a local “community” project yet still based on people working for wages under the supervision of (elected) bosses to produce commodities for sale on the market, confirming the socialist’s belief that capitalist production is the only system these “radicals” think can really work. Although it may help some of our fellow-workers to find a comfortable niche within the capitalist system where they can exercise a degree of self-management over some of their own affairs we should never forget that we seek to abolish wage-slavery altogether. The task of socialists is to strive for the authority over the world economy as a whole, and so that our fate is not still subject to the blind workings of economic laws beyond our control. If we want a world revolution, then somehow we will have to take on the functions of the decision making of the transnational corporations as well as government ministries. Just saying “the workers will do it” does not solve a thing. Who are these workers who will do it after the revolution, without discussing what they will do, before the revolution? Slogans simply demanding a change in power because it is “more democratic” will get nowhere. The issue of “who decides, who rules” only arises in the context of “what is to be done”.

A lot of production decisions have become fairly routine which could be readily taken over and transformed by workers’ councils. Workers will have no difficulty improving efficiency and productivity once the antagonistic system of employer/employee is done away with. Administration by a personnel department also turns into an essentially routine function made much easier by the elimination of “industrial relations” or “human resources” as it is called between hostile employers and employees.

 The purchasing office will be devoted to the core purpose – ordering supplies and raw materials where the sales department becomes concerned with the real actual demand from consumers. R and D continue with the development of improved and new products stemming from customer review and consumer research findings. These functions would all become aspects of production planning. They coordinate with the next level of the logistics and supply chain, from local to regional to global. All these networks exist now under capitalism and can be adjusted and adapted to be accountable at every stage of the process of production. Other tools of capitalism can be adopted such as “cost-benefit analysis” which measures benefit gained against resources expended.  Capitalism possesses no great technical mystery over its choices and allocation of social wealth. The “experts” and “specialists” who prepare the feasibility studies and recommendations are not the capitalist, but just highly-trained workers. By re-aligning their criteria, production for profit and the pockets of the rich, becomes production for the needs of the many.