This is what socialism might look like

Why didn’t the environmental movement fully succeed? Some theorists now calling themselves “bright greens” have abandoned the fight altogether. The reason for the failure thus far of the environmental movement and fell short because it wasn’t able to alter industrial society’s central organising principle, which is also its fatal flaw: its accumulation of capital and ever-expanding market and pursuit of growth at all costs for profit. 

Why have environmental writers and advocacy organizations succumbed to tunnel vision? Perhaps it’s simply that they assume systems thinking is beyond the capacity of policy-makers. It’s true: If climate scientists were to approach world leaders with the message, “We have to change everything, including our entire economic system—and fast,” they might be shown the door rather rudely. A more acceptable message is, “We have identified a serious pollution problem, for which there are technical solutions.” Perhaps many of the scientists who did recognize the systemic nature of our ecological crisis concluded that if we can successfully address this one make-or-break environmental crisis, we’ll be able to buy time to deal with others waiting in the wings (overpopulation, species extinctions, resource depletion and on and on). Their justification for doing so is that people want a vision of the future that’s cheery and that doesn’t require sacrifice. 

The first task for socialist politics is to direct the cause of the environmental crisis to the world dominated by market and profit accumulation. The system of capitalism must be placed in the dock as being culpable of the abuse and destruction of nature. The Socialist Party calls upon the people to organise with a view to the substitution of the co-operative commonwealth for the present state of unplanned production, commercial rivalry, and social disorder; a commonwealth in which every worker shall have the free exercise and full benefit of his or her faculties. We call upon them to unite with us in a mighty effort to gain by all practicable means the political power. Science and technology are diverted from their humane purpose to the enslavement of men, women, and children. Ignorance and misery, with all their concomitant evils, are perpetuated, that the people may be kept in bondage. Workers robbed of the wealth which they alone produce yet are even deprived of the necessaries of life by wage slavery.

Socialism would mean organising human societies in a manner that is compatible with the way that nature is organised. Capitalist society robs us of community with each other and communing with nature.  We have arrived at a turning point in human history. Multiple and massive environmental problems will soon become irreversible and relatively soon the planet will no longer be capable of supporting civilisation. The unfolding crises make the environmental movement a crucial arena for socialists. The logic of curing the environmental problems will lead participants in a socialist direction, but this is not an automatic process. Without clear and concrete ideas, the environmental movement will not bring about the fundamental change needed to resolve the crisis.  We can shape our own destiny only by embracing a society of “associated producers.” When the world recovers from the globalisation of greed, the human species can join together in its quest for social justice and solidarity.

The Socialist Party envision the end of the exchange economy. In short, free access simply means that workers will be allowed to take freely of the goods and services available to them, and in which they had a hand in collectively producing. Common sense will prevent over-consumption, and due to the fact that we will be allowed to work at jobs which we have a natural interest and aptitude in, the enforcement of work entailed by wages or even labour vouchers will be seen as unnecessary. Therefore, free access consumption will not be based on how many hours we work, but on the self-defined needs of the individual. Of course, if we don't collectively agree not to overconsume, or if we collectively choose not to work, socialism in general and free access, in particular, will not work. However, since everybody in a socialist society will be working at jobs in which they have an aptitude for and personal interest in, and since work will encompass only a fraction of the time for each worker that it does under capitalism (with far more leisure time available to workers than under capitalism), the need for some medium to enforce work will be unnecessary. It is very possible that as technology continues to advance, and as production becomes more and more efficient over the course of time under socialism, it will become increasingly easier to produce what we need and want in greater abundance, making artificial limits on production for the purpose of limiting consumption and enforcing work to appear more and more absurd in the eye of the worker.

Free access can basically be defined as no medium of exchange necessary for taking goods and utilising services. If we need a certain item from the store, we will simply walk in and sign it out of the inventory. Any type of barter in an advanced industrialised society is believed to be ludicrous by people who are aware of the material possibilities in an era of abundance which we live under today. In fact, it will be probable under a free access system that people will keep consumption in check by agreeing to share items in which we now purchase for every family, such as methods of transportation and home maintenance. As has been pointed out, lawn mowers, for example, will probably be shared by several families on one block, and future means of superior public transportation will lessen the demand for personal means of transportation, such as automobiles. Also, without the need for market hungry advertising, needs will not be created, and the demand for outlandish and unnecessary devices sold in abundance under capitalism will be seen as a waste of production under socialism.


It should be restated that work under socialism will be completely voluntary, and should have no need to be enforced as under capitalism. Goods must be free to all in addition to the required services, and since people will be able to work jobs in which they have a personal aptitude, work will be a pleasure under socialism, and not the unmitigated burden that people try to avoid under capitalism. Hence, virtually all individuals will be happy to do their share of the useful work required in society, and much leisure in which to enjoy it will be available (there is a saying that goes "those who love their occupation never work a day in their life", a saying very applicable to what our life will be like under socialism concerning our jobs).