Putting in two-cents worth after some delay. Marv wrote (Tue, 26 Mar 2024 10:15:03 PDT
“The latter features [proletarian democracy and workers’ control of the means of production] have been more conventionally seen within Marxism as characteristic of a socialist society, not one which may be transitioning to or away from it under a regime which has declared it as a goal.” Not at all. What was “conventionally seen within Marxism” ought to start with Marx, and for Marx, proletarian democracy and workers’ control of the state (not just production) were indeed meant to be characteristic of the transitional society en route to socialism. According to Marx’s theory of the state, the classless society of communism (including its first stage, which Lenin termed socialism) would be achieved first through the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist state by the working class and the construction of a workers’ state. The workers’ state over time “withers away,” eliminates capitalist exploitation and oppression and abolishes class inequality. As the Communist Manifesto put it, “The first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class.” Likewise, the rules drafted by Marx for the First International in 1867 began with the familiar motto, “The emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves.” That is not what happened in China. The Chinese revolution, earth-shaking and partially emancipatory though it was, was not made by the working class and did not put the working class in charge of the state. The revolutionary Chinese state eventually called itself socialist, but according to Marx’s Marxism it was neither socialism nor transitional to it. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#29724): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/29724 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/105142448/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
