At 11:32 AM 5/5/98 -0400, Lou Proyect quoted: >Socialism's Dead by Roger Burbach > >(Reprinted from the November/December 1997 issue of NACLA Report on the >Americas. For subscription information, email NACLA at [EMAIL PROTECTED]) > >Twentieth century socialism is moribund. -- snip---- >My general thesis is that twentieth century socialism has been defeated >for two contradictory reasons. In those socialist experiments that were >the most democratic, like Chile from 1970 to 1973, the United States was >able to exploit relatively open political and economic processes to >destroy them from within. On the other hand, in those centralized and >verticalist socialist projects such as Cuba, the lack of authentic >democratic processes weakened their popular support and led to the >implementation of inefficient state-dominated economies. This provided >grist for the ongoing U.S. ideological campaign against Communism and >socialism. I disagree. Undeniably, the processes described above are real, but I do not see them as the main root causes for the 'demise of socialism' meaning the electoral defeat of parties labeled as socialist. My own view of the 'death of the 20th century socialism' is that in actuality the '20th century socialism' consists of two very much different animals forced to dwell under a single label. One of those animals died of the old age, the other one moved to new pastures, so the dwelling labeled 'socialism' is now empty. The animal that died of the old age is the nostalgic longing for social solidarity that existed in pre-industrial peasant society -- which capitalist industrialization destroyed. That longing gave the momentum to such 'abominations' as utopian socialism advocating alternatives to, or escapes from capitalist industrialization to idyllic comunes. Needless to add that Marx blasted those sentiments as escapist. I am pretty sure that he would say the same thing about many 'alternative' or local projects Roger Burbach mentiones in his article, but that needs to be examined more carefully. The animal the moved to the greener pastures is the legitimation of the managerial rule in the industry, or managerial ideology. The spiel about efficiency migght be appealing to the woners or stockholders, but it is hardly appealing to the toiling masses, that neurotic idiot Frederic Winslow Taylor notwithstanding. The captains of industry needed a secular religion that would explain to the masses the necessity of the austerity measures imposed by the industrilization, and also tell them that their fate is in good managerial hands that well represents the masses. Hence the '20th century socialism' was born that combined rapid development of national industry, populism, the vanguard party, central planning, and socialist eschatology of building peasant-worker heaven on earth. It is not a coincidence that this form of socialism found its greatest support in predominantly agrarian societies of Eastern Europe and Latin America. It essentially promised the extension of the peasant values, solidarity and populism into the industrial era. It was the history repeating itself as farce Marx is talking about in _ 18 brummaire_ -- and old social symbols and forms transferred to a new socio-economic reality. It was transfered quiote deliberately by the new managerial class as a form of identity politics. Peasants-turned-workers felt familair with it as an extension of their old cultural values, and it gave the legitimacy to the new managerial elite. The fake populism engineered from above: peasant culture, peasant dances, peasant festivals, peasant solidarity thriving in factories (better known as informal networks or shadow economy) -- this was all identity politics, a populist farce created by the managerial elite to appease the masses and legimize the government policies. That conslusion is difficult to miss for someone who, like myself, grew up in Eastern Europe and eyewitnessed all that crap. For those who had the misfortune of being born on this side of the big pond, I suggest the novel titled _The Joke_ by Milan Kundera - the unabridged version (warning: there is a lot of sexist stuff there). Kundera's description of the interplay between culture and power in Czechoslovakia is brilliant. So as the peasants-turned workers moved to the higher echelons of the 'socialist' society, thanks to the generous policies of providing accessible education to everyone, they and even more so their children were not peasants anymore, and the nostalgia for the old time peasant communitarianism started dying. In this context, it is difficult to miss another Marx's observation that a mode of production (central planning) sowing the seeds of its own destruction. So as the appeal of nostaligic communitarianism died of natural causes, the other animal living in the same barn, the managerial ideology, moved to greener pastures -- the rationalist mythologies of freedom and choice imbuded by the academe. Ah, I almost forgot, the animal that died had pups that after the death of their mother also moved to the greener pastures -- of identity politics and the idyllic Arcadian nostalgia. So what died in the 20th century was not socialism Karl Marx was talking about, socialism that is born from the appropriation and subsumption of the capitalist mode of production. It was the peasant communitarianism reapeting itself as a farce in the industrial era, a utopian socialism that died. The socialism of Karl marx has not even been born yet, as capitalism has not yet exhausted its full productive potential. But with the advent of globalization, that time may be near (but the Left is still sleeping with its hand in the potty of identity politics). Regards, Wojtek Sokolowski
