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A Perfect Socialist?
Topic Started: 5 Dec 2014, 17:50 (359 Views)
Guertonia
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Wow...Awesome! Can't wait to read it (and I am a trained social studies teacher so the lecture is fine with me! :) )
Minister of Domestic Affairs of the 13th, 14th, 15th Cabinet
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the 18th Cabinet
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Lemur Isles
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A Critique of Reformism - Part II

In the last post, we looked at the potential for the leadership of social democracy to sell out the movement, due in large part to their disconnect from the conditions of the working class. However, even if this is overcome, a socialist controlled parliament would confront many obstacles.

The capitalist class (and any other historic ruling class, for that matter) maintains its rule of society through: its ownership of the means of production, the dominance of ruling class ideology, control of the media - and when all else fails - the instruments of the state, the "special bodies of armed men". Of course, the state reveals itself to be its weakest when it has to turn to physical repression, but this still poses a problem for us who want to change society (whether by reform or revolution). Acknowledging this is important, since we must realise that we should be no more bound to purely legal activities than the state, which will subvert its own laws if necessary. The odds are stacked against us as it is...

Although it is true that the parliament and and government are elected through universal suffrage (the issue of billionaires funding their preferred candidates notwithstanding...), they still represent a very tiny, though important part of the state. The actual functions of the state are carried out by an unelected, entrenched, sprawling bureaucracy. The top civil servants would at best be complacent and unwilling to serious change things, or they would actively identify with the bourgeoisie and do everything they could to undermine a socialist government at every turn. You only need to look at the 'revolving door' between the public and private sectors, where many ex-civil servants then serve on the board of directors of a corporation, or vice-versa. The capitalist class has connections everywhere, including in the state.

If a socialist party won enough seats to form a government, the other main thing they would have to deal with is the limits placed on their power by the constitution. The constitution of all modern states (save the outliers of Cuba, North Korea...) defends property rights first and foremost. Though everyone supposedly has equal rights to property, it is those that own the means of production that benefit most. Any attempt by workers to take control of their workplace would be met with the iron fist of law enforcement.

However, in theory they could change some of these through constitutional amendments if they had a large enough majority/called referendums. In the process however, you could imagine institutions like the Supreme Court trying desperately to find some legalistic fault with any such processes (they are appointed by previous administrations after all). And come any referendum, there would be a big scare campaign by the media on the issue of limiting property rights. (Of course, that's no reason for us to oppose a referendum, and we should prepare to make those arguments head on).

But, if we did have a strong mandate from the population, which we should have, we could conceivably jump through all those legal hoops. The socialist government might then try to implement a programme of massive tax increases on the rich (on income, and wealth), and expropriate the major industry that is currently controlled by the largest monopolies.

At that point though, I don't think the ruling class would let us get any further than that (if they even let us get that far in the first place). They would use their connections with the generals (who come from the same class) and start a coup. There are numerous precedents for this in history, perhaps most notably in Chile in 1973 when the socialist president, Salvador Allende was deposed, with help from the CIA. Many other left governments (though not necessarily socialist) have seen a similar fate, particularly in Latin America. The same thing happened in Spain in 1936 when General Franco led the military rebellion against the popular front government of the time. The military junta that ruled Greece in the late 60s-70s, was largely to combat the growing influence of socialism within the working class in Greece.

There was also even talk of a possible coup in the UK during the term of Harold Wilson's government in the '60s (and he was hardly a socialist).

And that is not to speak of the threat of other imperialist powers intervening against a socialist government. America would most certainly play a role in trying to quell it, as the global capitalist hegemon.

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Apart from the very real threat of state force being used against the working class in these situations, there is also the issue of the economic difficulties that would come with trying to implement socialism in one country.

Reformism, by its very nature implies political change within national borders, due to the limited jurisdiction the state has control over. This is particular problematic today, since the global economy is so interdependent, where industries in different countries tend to specialise to a high degree. As a result, neoliberalism is the default economic policy states have to take to remain competitive on the world market.

My country (Ireland) is a particular example of this. The country's economy is dependent on foreign direct investment from (mainly) American corporations, which are enticed by the low 12.5% corporation tax. If a left-wing government wanted to increase taxes, the companies could leave, causing unemployment. The state might try to nationalise some of these to keep the factories open, (let's say, the Intel manufacturing plant in Ireland for example). If that happened however, the plant would find its supply chain cut off since its American parent company would hardly approve of the expropriation! As well as that, many countries would refuse to trade with the Irish "rogue state".

Other measures would be difficult, like trying to raise taxes on the wealthy, which would cause them to move their wealth to bank accounts abroad.

In EU, lots of countries are more or less forced to implement austerity due to regulations by the European Central Bank. Since it is hard to tax the rich, as I've mentioned, they have to raise taxes on the poorest as well, and make cuts to public services. Clearly, socialists should oppose all these cuts and regressive taxation. Unfortunately though, it seems like it is impossible to end austerity without challenging the whole global capitalist system.




So what is the alternate solution? Clearly a lot of these problems would remain, even with a revolutionary strategy. Namely, the threat of state repression and the difficulties of implementing socialism in one country.

To deal with the first problem of the state, the most important thing is to recognise the need to defend ourselves. We need to end the monopoly the state holds on the control of firearms. This means we need to demand popularly controlled militias to defend the institutions of the working class (not just against the state, but fascist and far-right paramilitaries, which the state has sometimes relied on in the past). Of course, the weapons should only be used for defence, and not premature insurrection before the whole class is on our side. That we would be capable of defending ourselves would make the fascists/the state think twice before attacking us. Think of the Black Panthers, and how the defended themselves.

As well as that though, we should attempt to neutralise the state where we can. That means demanding the disbandment of agencies like the CIA and the FBI, but also the standing army and the police. In the case of the latter, making a demand for an end to the drug war is important, as the state would consequently have much less of an excuse to pour so much funding into police departments.

Failing that, we need to appeal to the rank and file of the army and police. The lower ranks of the military tend to come from working class backgrounds, while the top ranks come from the bourgeoisie and middle classes. These are people we can appeal to. We should be demanding full unionisation rights of soldiers, and the right to refuse to carry out orders and elect their own officers. Similarly with the police, though this tends to be harder, since they are of course used to dealing with protestors.

Also, the more popular support the revolution has, the less likely these people will be to turn on their own class. Nevertheless, we can't be complacent about that either, so militias are still a must.

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As for the issue of socialism in one country, the only answer is revolution in many countries, to happen more or less simultaneously. Of course, the revolution doesn't need to happen in every single corner in the world at the same time to be successful, but it must happen in a good number of adjacent developed countries. My guess is that once Europe goes red the global revolution will be tipped in favour of the working class (it may take a while for the Americans). Though, perhaps it could be somewhere like South Africa, or a Latin American country to spark it all off in the beginning.

Anyway, our task is not only to build revolutionary parties in our individual nations, but to build an international of parties, with a common global (or at least continental) strategy for taking power. So we need to dispel any illusions the working class might have in nationalism, and make the case that the worker has no country. Of course, this is easier said than done, since this is such an abstract goal. It is the only solution I can see however, but it is possible. My guess is that it might take at least a couple of decades to build. But ultimately, the existence of such an international organisation would give workers the confidence to overthrow capitalism within their own states they know they won't be isolated, that international comrades will have their back and will follow in their footsteps.




Sorry it took a while to respond, I had an exam I had to study for!

Anyway, I am sure my explanation still leaves a lot to be desired, so if you have any questions please ask :)
Former Secretary General
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Czechostan
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I don't see why not. My great-grandfather was left-wing (I'm not sure where on the spectrum, though), and he married a woman from a wealthy family when he lived in Albania. Instead of living an opulent, carefree lifestyle, he immigrated to America and opened his own small restaurant in the northeast USA. When he got off the immigrant boat, there was an impoverished man with just the clothes on his back. My great-grandfather bought him clothes and other items and the families have been friends ever since. This is just a personal anecdote, but people of any background can support workers' solidarity and socialism whether they were a poor prole or not.
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Czechostan
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Very good points about reformism, Lemur. I'm currently writing an issue for my history class about how the political fragmentation of the German left affected the outcome of the German Revolution.
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