[p2p-research] 21st Century Socialism: Eleven Talking Points

[Kevin Carson]

  Sent to you by Kevin Carson via Google Reader: 21st Century Socialism:
Eleven Talking Points via SolidarityEconomy.net by Editors on 4/30/09


Eleven Talking Points On 21st Century Socialism


By Carl Davidson

SolidarityEconomy.net

May 1, 2009

The current discussion around socialism in left and progressive circles
in the U.S. needs to be placed in a more substantive arena. This is an
effort to do so. I take note in advance of the criticism that the
following eleven working hypotheses are rather dry and formal. But in
light of the faux ‘socialisms’ bandied about in the headlines and sound
bytes of the mass media in the wake of the financial crisis, especially
the absurd claim in the media of rightwing populism that the Obama
administration is Marxist and socialist, I felt something a little more
rigorous might be helpful. Obviously, criticism and commentary is
invited.

1. Socialism’s fundamental building blocks are already present in US
society. The means of production, for the most part, are fully
developed and in fact are stagnating under the political domination of
finance capital. The US labor force, again for the most part, is highly
skilled at all levels of production, management, marketing, and
finance. The kernels of socialist organization are also scattered
across the landscape in cooperatives, socially organized human
services, and centralized and widespread mass means of many-to-many
communication and supply/demand data management. Many earlier attempts
at socialism did not have these advantages.

2. Socialism is first of all a democratic political system where the
interests and organizations of the working class and its allies have
attained and hold the preponderance of political power and thus play
the critical leading role in society. It is still a class society, but
one in a protracted transition, over hundreds of years, to a future
classless society where exploiting class privileges are abolished and
classes and class distinctions generally wither away, both nationally
and globally. So socialism will have classes for some time, including
some capitalists, because it will be a mixed economy, with both public
and private ownership, even as the balance shifts over time. Family
farmers and small proprietors will both exist and flourish alongside
cooperatives. Innovative 'high road' entrepreneurial privately-held
firms will compete with publically-own firms, and encouraged to create
new wealth within an environmentally regulated and progressively taxed
system. Past efforts to build socialism have suffered from aggravated
conflict between and among popular classes and lack of emphasis on
building wide unity among the people.

3. Socialism at the base is a transitional economic system anchored in
the social mode of production brought into being by capitalist
development over several centuries. Its economic system is necessarily
mixed, and makes use of markets, especially in goods and services,
which are regulated, especially regarding the environment. But capital
markets and wage-labor markets can be sharply restricted and even
abolished in due time. Markets are a function of scarcity, and all
economies of any scale in a time of scarcity have them, even if they
are disguised as 'black' or 'tiered' markets. In addition to regulated
markets, socialism will also feature planning, especially on the macro
level of infrastructure development, in investment of public assets and
funds, and other arenas where markets have failed. Planning will
especially be required to face the challenges of uneven development and
harsh inequalities on a global scale, as well as the challenge of
moving from a carbon and uranium based energy system to one based on
renewable green energy sources. The socialisms of the last century fell
or stagnated due to failure to develop the proper interplay between
plans and markets.

4. Socialism will be anchored in public and worker ownership of the
main productive forces and natural resources. This can be achieved by
various means: a) buying out major failing corporations at penny stock
status, then leasing them back to the unions and having the workers in
each firm—one worker, one vote—run them, b) workers directly taking
ownership and control over failed and abandoned factories, c) eminent
domain seizures of resources and factories, with compensation,
otherwise required for the public good, and d) public funding for
startups of worker-owned cooperative businesses. Socialism will also
require public ownership of most finance capital institutions,
including bringing the Federal Reserve under the Treasury Department
and federal ownership. Lease payments from publically owned firms will
go into a public investment fund, which will in turn lend money to
community and worker owned banks and credit unions. A stock market will
still exist for remaining publically traded firms and investments
abroad, but will be strictly controlled. A stock transfer tax will be
implemented. Gambling in derivatives will be outlawed. Fair trade
agreements with other countries will be on a bilateral basis for mutual
benefit.

5. Socialism will require democracy in the workplace of public firms
and encourage it in all places of work. Workers have the right to
independent unions to protect their social and daily interests, in
addition to their rights as worker-owners in the governance of their
firms. In addition to direct democracy at the plant level, the
organizations of the working class also participate in the wider public
planning process and thus democratically shape the direction of ongoing
development on the macro level as well. Under socialism the government
will also serve as the employer-of-last-resort. Minimum living-wage
jobs will be provided for all who want to work. Socialism is committed
to genuine full employment. Every citizen will have a genuine right to
work.

6. Socialism will largely be gained by the working class and it allies
winning the battle for democracy in politics and civil society at
large, especially taking down the structures and backward laws of
class, gender and racial privilege. Women have equal rights with men,
and minority nationalities have equal rights with the majority. It also
defends equal rights and self-determination among all nations across
the globe; no nation can itself be fully free when it oppresses
another. Socialism will encourage public citizenship and mass
participation at every level, with open information systems, public
education and transparency in its procedures. It will need a true
multiparty system, with fusion voting, proportional representation and
instant runoff. Given the size and diversity of our country, it is
highly unlikely that any single party could adequately represent all
popular interests; working class and progressive organizations will
need to form common fronts. All trends are guaranteed the right to
speak, organize, petition and stand for election. With public financing
as an option, socialism can restrict the role of wealth in elections,
moving away from a system, in effect, of “one dollar, one vote” and
toward a system more reflective of “one person, one vote.” These are
the structural measures that can allow the majority of the people,
especially the working class and its allies, to secure the political
leadership of government and instruments of the state by democratic
means, unless these are sabotaged by reaction. Some socialisms of the
past used only limited formal democracy or simply used administrative
means to implement goals, with the failure of both the goals and the
overall projects. Americans are not likely to be interested in systems
with elections where only one party runs and no one can lose.

7. Socialism will be a state power, specifically a democratic political
order with a representative government. But the government and state
components of the current order, corrupted with the thousand threads
connecting it to old ruling class, will have to be broken up and
replaced with new ones that are transparent, honest and serve the
majority of the people. The US Constitution and Bill of Rights can
still be the initial basic organizing principle for a socialist
government and state. The democratic rights it has gained over the
years will be protected and enhanced. Government will also be needed to
organize and finance the social development benefitting the people and
the environment already mentioned; but the state power behind the law
will be required to compel the honest use of resources and to protect
people from criminal elements, individual and organized. Forces who try
to overturn and reverse the new socialist government illegally and in
violation of the Constitution will not be able to do so; they will be
broken up and brought to justice. Our society will need a state power
for some time to come, even as its form changes. Still, government
power has limits; under socialism sovereignty resides in the people
themselves, and the powers of any government are necessarily restricted
and subordinate to the universal and natural rights of all humankind.
Attempts to ignore or reject these principles have severely harmed
socialist governments and movements in the past.

8. Socialism will be a society in harmony with the natural environment,
understanding that all economies are subsets of the eco-system and
ignore it at their peril. In its economics, there are no such things as
“externalities” to be pushed off downstream or to future generations.
The nature of pending planetary disasters necessitates a high level of
planning. We need to redesign communities, promote healthier foods, and
rebuild sustainable agriculture—all on a global scale with high design,
but on a human scale with mass participation of communities in diverse
localities. Socialism will treasure and preserve the diversity of
nature’s bounty and end the practice of genetic modification to control
the human food supply. We need growth, but intelligent growth in
quality and wider knowledge with a lighter environmental footprint. A
socialism that simply reproduces the wasteful expansion of an earlier
capitalism creates more problems than it solves.





9. Socialism values equality, and will be a society of far greater
equality of opportunity, and far less economic inequality. In addition
to equal rights before the law, all citizens and residents will have
equitable access to a “universal toolbox” of paid-up free public
education for all who want to learn, for as far as they want and are
able to go; universal public pre-school care; a minimum income, as a
social wage, for all who create value, whether in a workplace or
otherwise; our notions of socially useful work, activity that creates
value, has to be expanded beyond market definitions. Parents raising
children, students learning skills, elders educating and passing
traditions to younger generations--all these create value that society
can in turn reward. Universal single-payer health care with retirement
benefits at the level of a living wage is critical to start. Since
everyone has access to employment, the existing welfare system can be
abolished; individuals will be free to choose the career path and level
of income targets they desire, or not. There are no handouts for those
able to work, but there are also no irrational barriers to achievement.

10. Socialism is a society where religion can be freely practiced, or
not, and no religion is given any special advantages over any other.
Religious freedom remains a fundamental tenant of socialism, but
naturally neither its practitioners nor anyone else can deny anyone the
benefits and protection of civil and criminal law, especially to women
and children.

11. Socialism will require an institution of armed forces. Their
mission will be to defend the people and secure their interests against
any enemies and help in times of natural disasters. It will not be
their task to expand markets abroad and defend the property abroad of
the exploiting classes. Soldiers will be allowed to organize and
petition for the redress of grievances. Armed forces also include local
police, under community control, as well as a greatly reduced prison
system, based on the principle of restorative justice, and mainly for
the protection of society from individuals inflicted with violent
pathologies and criminal practices. Non-violent conflict resolution and
community-based rehabilitation will be encouraged, but the need for
some coercive means will remain for some time.



[Carl Davidson is webmaster for SolidarityEconomy.net, a national
committee member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and
Socialism, and a coordinating committee member of the US Solidarity
Economy Network. Together with Jerry Harris, he is author
of 'Cyber-Radicalism: A New Left for a Global Age, available at
http://stores.lulu.com/changemaker If you like this article, go
to 'Keep On Keepin' On at http://carldavidson.blogspot.com and make use
of the PayPal button. Email him at carld717 at gmail.com ]


email2friend
Things you can do from here:
- Subscribe to SolidarityEconomy.net using Google Reader
- Get started using Google Reader to easily keep up with all your
favorite sites
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listcultures.org/pipermail/p2presearch_listcultures.org/attachments/20090502/83cadf34/attachment-0001.html>