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Edited on Tue Jul-29-03 04:37 PM by durutti
I would define socialism as the democratization of the economy. That's the one elements that all the various forms of socialism -- utopian, anarchist, Marxist, etc. -- have in common.
The workplace would be the basic organ of democratic expression in a socialist society. Decisions made by that particular workplace would be made by popular vote of all the workers in that workplace. Managers, if necessary, would be elected.
Workers would elect mandated, recallable delegates from their workplaces to participate in workers' councils in which representatives from all regional workplace come together to determine political decisions, as well as the type and quantity of production of various goods.
In a socialist society, everyone able to work who does work a certain bare minimum would be guaranteed the bare necessities -- food, clothing, housing, medical care, etc.
A great deal of emphasis would be placed on automating unpleasant tasks, like cleaning toilets. Where such tasks could not be automated, they would be shared in by everyone, so as to minimize the amount of time any one person has to spending doing them.
Another crucial emphasis of socialist society is to expand production to the point where scarcity of necessities is no longer an issue. In advanced capitalist societies, this has pretty much already happened.
People would be paid according to quality and quantity of work, just as they are now. However, there wouldn't be as many huge disparities of income as there are now. One reason is that investors and CEOs are eliminated.
By automating production and sharing in unpleasant tasks, the goal of a socialist society is to enable people to have more time to do what they want to do, and hopefully to devote that time to art, science, and the like. As Marx put it, "...nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind..."
Now, to introduce you to some of the debates in socialist politics...
The first important debate you should be familiar with is reform vs. revolution. Reformist socialists view social welfare programs, minimum wage hikes, democratic nationalization of industry, etc. as stepping stones to socialism. They believe that the state is essentially autonomous terrain, and that a socialist party can win seats in Congress or parliament and "reform" the capitalist state into a socialist one. Some reformist socialists, called democratic socialists or reform communists, think that this is a viable path to socialism as described above. Others, called social-democrats, hold that socialism will only be acheived in the far future if ever, and so concentrate instead on building welfare states. Others, called market socialists, support socialism as described above but also support using capitalist markets as the means to determine distribution. Social-democrats and market socialists are often criticized by many (including this writer) as not really being socialists. In the U.S., these forms of socialism are best represented by Democratic Socialists of America, currents within the Socialist Party USA, currents within Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, currents within Solidarity, currents within the Communist Party USA, and many Greens. Some democratic socialists are active in the Democratic Party.
Revolutionists see reforms as means by which capitalism is preserved. Through welfare programs, the state protects people from the worst of capitalism, and therefore keeps people from wanting to overthrow it. For tactical reasons, most revolutionists do critically support reforms, but see them as inherently limited and not enough. Revolutionists instead support political revolution, usually seen as necessarily violent (though some revolutionists are pacifists).
The first major split among revolutionist factions was between Marxist revolutionists (there are "democratic" or "reformist" Marxists too) and anarchism. Marxists generally believe in replacing the capitalist state with a socialist one. The socialist state is seen as a stepping stone to a classless, moneyless, stateless society, called communism. There are few purely Marxist parties in the U.S. today, though the Socialist Labor Party comes close.
Anarchists, in contrast, believe that any state will lead to the creation of a new ruling class -- a dictatorship over the proletariat, rather than of the proletariat -- and that it's essentially necessary to move from capitalism directly to communism (more on anarchism can be found at www.anarchistfaq.org). Most members of Industrial Workers of the World are anarchists. There are many small anarchist groups in the U.S.
There are further divisions among Marxist revolutionists. The first is between Leninists and others. Leninists believe that the working class will never become sufficiently class-conscious to create revolution by itself. So, the "most advanced" workers -- the few who see things as they really are -- must form a revolutionary "vanguard" party to lead the revolution. There are very few purely Leninist groups in the U.S., though many Trotskyist groups come close.
Other forms of Marxist revolutionism see revolution as more spontaneous, and reject the concept of the vanguard party as authoritarian and elitist. One organization holding this view is the News & Letters Committee.
Within Leninism, there is another split: the split between Stalinists and Trotskyists. Stalinists (who are regarded by many, including (again) this writer as being not really socialists) are basically nationalists. They believe that since the "vanguard" party is supposed to be the party of the workers, and since the goal of socialism is to abolish all classes but the proletariat, political democracy is not necessary -- a distortion of Marx's ideas, to say the least. Stalinist economies are planned from the top-down. Many Communist Party USA members are Stalinists.
Maoism accepts many of the ideas of Stalinism, but rejects others. Maoists believe that the worldwide socialist revolution will be led by Third World peasants and workers. They also believe that struggle between the working class and the capitalist class (which constantly threatens to resurface, in their view, under socialism) continues under socialism is a process called "cultural revolution". In the advanced capitalist countries, Maoist parties usually place a special emphasis on the struggles of oppressed minorities. Some regard the white working class of imperialist countries as a "labor aristocracy", and not revolutionary. Maoist groups in the U.S. include the Maoist Internationalist Movement, the Revolutionary Communist Party, the Progressive Labor Party, and to some extent, Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
Trotskyists believe in multi-pary democracy. They believe in bottom-up democracy through workers' councils. There are important divisions within Trotskyism, however. Orthodox Trotskyists ("Trotskyite" is considered derogatory) believe that the Soviet Union was a "deformed workers' state", not socialist but more progressive than capitalism. It had to be changed by a political revolution of the Soviet workers. Trotskyists are divided in whether or not to extend this definition to North Korea, China, etc. Orthodox Trots in the U.S. the Spartacist League and the League for the Revolutionary Party.
Unorthodox Trotskyists think that the Soviet Union was a "bureaucratic collectivist" or "state-capitalist" state, just as bad as Western capitalism. Unorthdox Trotskyist groups in the U.S. include a faction of Solidarity and the International Socialist Organization.
Another form of Marx-inspired leftism that's hard to categorize is Castroism or Guevarism. Guevarists are not so much socialists as left-wing nationalists who emphasize guerilla warfare and Third World liberation movements. Guevarist groups in the U.S. include (to some extent) the Socialist Workers Party and Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
There are several other, minor strains of socialism. One is reactionary socialism. Reactionary socialist movements are generally led by peasants. They aren't interested in progress, but in preserving what once was. The Luddites are an example of a reactionary socialist movement.
Another kind of socialism is utopian socialism. Utopian socialists try to "drop out" of capitalist society and build and alternative within it. Communes are probably the best example of utopian socialist movements.
Recommended further reading (can't remember all the authors' names):
The ABCs of Political Economy Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution The Marx-Engels Reader Marx for Beginners Lenin for Beginners Trotsky for Beginners ParEcon Anarchism: Arguments For and Against An Anarchist FAQ: www.anarchistfaq.org
What's my affiliation? I don't like to label myself, but I gravitate towards democratic socialism/reform communism.
The closest thing to a socialist society that's existed, I think, was much of Spain during the Spanish Civil War, and much of Russia during the early years of Lenin.
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