"..IF THE various countries that are supposedly socialist aren't, then what is the alternative? I have been asked more than once if this means that we all need to go back to sewing our own clothes, growing our own food and building our own houses. Perhaps, people often believe, the problem is the size and complexity (not to mention the environmental destruction) wrought by industrial production itself"
But in this regard, capitalism has done us a favor. As Karl Marx and Frederick Engels put it in the *Communist Manifesto*: The bourgeoisie, during its rule of scarce one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together. Subjection of nature's forces to man, machinery, application of chemistry to industry and agriculture, steam-navigation, railways, electric telegraphs, clearing of whole continents for cultivation, canalization of rivers, whole populations conjured out of the ground--what earlier century had even a presentiment that such productive forces slumbered in the lap of social labor? The growth of society's "productive forces"--that is, the capacity to efficiently produce the necessities of life--means that for the first time in history, it's possible to meet humanity's needs for food, clothing and shelter while still allowing people adequate time to develop their level of education, to take part in decision-making about society's overall direction, and to enjoy a degree of leisure previously unthinkable. The problem is that under capitalism, all decisions about what to produce and how to produce are subordinated to a simple consideration: how to maximize profits. So long as the economy is organized around this principle, the exploitation of workers, environmental devastation and international economic competition that spills over into military conflict will persist. The socialist alternative to this is to put workers, instead of capitalists, in control of decisions about what to produce, how to produce it and how to distribute the collective output of society at a local, regional, national and international level. Of course, the capitalist owners of industry can't be persuaded to simply hand over control of the economy. It must be fought for. And the socialist movement has learned, through bitter experience<http://www.isreview.org/issues/06/chile.shtml>, that voting socialists into office in the hopes that they can successfully carry out an expropriation of the capitalist class is a strategy doomed to failure. But the self-emancipation of the working class, as Marx termed the process by which workers carry out a revolution, is essential not just because the capitalist class and the state won't concede unless they face a revolutionary challenge. The struggle by which workers emancipate themselves economically and politically also plays an indispensable role in workers learning about their own collective power and the interests that they share with other workers who may differ from them in terms of gender, race, ethnicity or religion. As Marx put it in the *German Ideology*, "This revolution is necessary, therefore, not only because the ruling class cannot be overthrown in any other way, but because only in a revolution can the class overthrowing it rid itself of all the muck of ages and fit itself to found society anew." It has been nearly 100 years since a revolution succeeded in overthrowing the older order in order "to found society anew"--during the 1917 Russian Revolution. But within a matter of 10 years, the Russian Revolution turned into its opposite, strangled by the failure of the revolution to succeed in even one of the many Western European powers shaken by mass workers' revolts in those tumultuous years. In reality, the problem facing the Russian working class was not industrialization, but the lack of it. Years of civil war and invasions by 14 different imperialist countries seeking to expand into what they perceived as a vacuum created by the revolution essentially destroyed the Russian working class, making it impossible to maintain workers' control over production and workers' democracy in the administration of society's overall affairs. This is what enabled Joseph Stalin to concentrate power in the hands of the bureaucracy--and ruthlessly eliminate his opponents who understood that Stalin aimed to overturn all that they had achieved. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - WORKERS' CONTROL of production and distribution requires workers to erect their own democratic state on the ruins of the old, to seize control over production and distribution and to reorganize these spheres of economic life around the principle of meeting human need instead of maximizing profit. Again and again, workers, in the course of resisting capitalism, build counter-institutions that get their start as organs of collective struggle, but which are able potentially to evolve into alternative institutions of state power. The rich history of such institutions are hidden from view by the work of historians who focus more on heads of state than on the struggles of regular people to shape the world around them--and who ignore that such counter-institutions spring up again and again as an organic part of workers' struggles. A short list of merely the most famous of these historical episodes would include Paris in 1871, Russia in 1917 and Germany in 1918 as well as Hungary in 1956, Chile in 1973, Iran in 1979 and Poland in 1981. In each of these examples, workers organized strikes and other kinds of resistance against their conditions of exploitation and oppression, but they went a step further. They set up workers' councils (called by many different names, but in essence fulfilling the same function) to coordinate their efforts. At the same time, these formations gave workers a means of carrying out production under their own control and insuring that the products of their labor were used to feed and sustain their challenge to the status quo, rather than supply the defenders of the old order with the resources to defeat the workers' councils and the vision of a new society they represented. In a socialist society, workers' councils at the school, hospital, warehouse, and factory level would be essential to give workers a say in the day-to-day running of their workplaces. Each workplace council would also send elected delegates to coordinate decision-making on an industry-wide and economy-wide basis. Because these delegates would be drawn directly from and accountable to the base, because they would be paid the same as the rest of the workers in that workplace and known by their co-workers, and because they would be recallable if they failed to exercise the will of those who elected them, such councils would give workers the ability to have a real and deciding say in every aspect of society. Needless to say, the political and business establishment in the examples cited above didn't relinquish their wealth, power and privilege without a fight. Thus, achieving workers' democratic control over production requires a confrontation with the state to succeed in the long run. As a result, the transition from capitalism to socialism can't be a gradual or incremental process by which the state enacts reforms and progressively takes ownership of more and larger chunks of the economy. Rather, socialism represents a revolutionary break with the present system--and depends on the active struggles of workers and their subsequent engagement with every aspect of governing society in their own interest, under the guiding principle of human need before corporate greed. http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/22/does-socialism-exist Related articles - Disaster socialism<http://socialistworker.org/2010/06/04/disaster-socialism> Recent articles <http://socialistworker.org/recent> - 11/22<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/22/does-socialism-exist#tabs-tabs-1> - 11/19<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/22/does-socialism-exist#tabs-tabs-2> - 11/18<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/22/does-socialism-exist#tabs-tabs-3> - 11/17<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/22/does-socialism-exist#tabs-tabs-4> - 11/16<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/22/does-socialism-exist#tabs-tabs-5> - 11/15<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/22/does-socialism-exist#tabs-tabs-6> 11/22 Monday, November 22nd - Does socialism exist in the world today?<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/22/does-socialism-exist> - "Teach for Awhile" falls short<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/22/teach-for-awhile-falls-short> - Unfit to run our schools<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/22/unfit-to-run-our-schools> - Hyatt's dirty safety record<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/22/hyatts-dirty-safety-record> - Challenging the anti-abortionists in Texas<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/22/challenging-anti-abortionists-in-texas> 11/19 Friday, November 19th - Meet John Boehner, corporate bag man<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/19/meet-john-boehner-corporate-bag-man> - A fighting leadership for the WTU?<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/19/fighting-leadership-for-wtu> - Golden economic follies<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/19/golden-economic-follies> - CUNY adjuncts deserve better<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/19/cuny-adjuncts-deserve-better> - Poisoning the Gulf's residents<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/19/poisoning-gulf-residents> - Don't deport immigrant families<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/19/dont-deport-immigrant-families> 11/18 Thursday, November 18th - Race and the U.S. socialist tradition<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/18/race-and-us-socialist-tradition> - Greek local elections highlight the crisis<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/18/greek-local-elections-highlight-crisis> - What's next for Kye Allums?<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/18/whats-next-for-kye-allums> - King of the creeps<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/18/king-of-the-creeps> - Voting for a real alternative in Ohio<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/18/voting-for-a-real-alternative-in-ohio> - Leading the charge for our schools<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/18/leading-the-charge-for-our-schools> 11/17 Wednesday, November 17th - Does Obama want to fight for us?<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/17/does-obama-want-fight-us> - The cutback commission<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/17/cutback-commission> - A deportation blocked<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/17/a-deportation-blocked> - A case that shocked a nation<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/17/case-that-shocked-a-nation> - Protesting layoffs at AT&T<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/17/protesting-layoffs-att> 11/16 Tuesday, November 16th - The old trickle-down trick<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/16/trickle-down-trick> - India for sale <http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/16/india-for-sale> - A cancer patient's appeal for resistance<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/16/cancer-patients-appeal> - The lighter side of terrorism?<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/16/lighter-side-of-terrorism> - The anatomy of a protest against hate<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/16/anatomy-of-a-protest> - Views in brief <http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/16/views-brief> 11/15 Monday, November 15th - Islamophobia Inc.<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/15/islamophobia-inc> - What happened at Millbank?<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/15/what-happened-at-millbank> - Oakland's killer cops get a pass<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/15/oakland-killer-cops-get-a-pass> - Profiles in desecration<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/15/profiles-in-desecration> - Louisiana students protest cuts<http://socialistworker.org/2010/11/15/louisiana-students-protest-cuts> Blogs Critical reading <http://socialistworker.org/blog/critical-reading> - Nurses union shows how to fight<http://socialistworker.org/blog/critical-reading/2010/11/21/nurses-union-shows-how-fight> - Stanley Aronowitz analyzes the elections<http://socialistworker.org/blog/critical-reading/2010/11/20/stanley-aronowitz-analyzes-ele> - Faking the evidence against Iran<http://socialistworker.org/blog/critical-reading/2010/11/18/faking-evidence-against-iran> - The United Nations brings death to Haiti<http://socialistworker.org/blog/critical-reading/2010/11/18/united-nations-brings-death-ha> - The unending Af/Pak quagmire<http://socialistworker.org/blog/critical-reading/2010/11/18/unending-afpak-quagmire> Couldn't make it up <http://socialistworker.org/blog/couldnt-make-it-up> - What’s ailing Ailes?<http://socialistworker.org/blog/couldnt-make-it-up/2010/11/18/what%E2%80%99s-ailing-ailes> - Hypocrites and health care<http://socialistworker.org/blog/couldnt-make-it-up/2010/11/16/hypocrites-and-health-care> E-mail alerts Sign up for e-mail alerts from SocialistWorker.org. E-mail address: - [image: Alan Maass | The Case for Socialism]<http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/The-Case-for-Socialism> - [image: WeAreMany.org] <http://wearemany.org/> - [image: Chris Williams | Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis]<http://www.haymarketbooks.org/pb/Ecology-and-Socialism> -- You cannot build anything on the foundations of caste. You cannot build up a nation, you cannot build up a morality. Anything that you will build on the foundations of caste will crack and will never be a whole. -AMBEDKAR http://venukm.blogspot.com http://www.shelfari.com/kmvenuannur http://kmvenuannur.livejournal.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
