Twenty-First Century Socialism and a Theory of Practice

1993

Here we base ourselves on the classical Marxist analysis of society. In Marx's view, the most basic distinguishing feature of different modes of social organisation is the manner in which they ensure the 'extraction of a surplus product' from the direct producers. This requires a little explanation. The 'necessary product', on this theory, is the product required to maintain and reproduce the workforce itself. This will take the form of consumer goods and services for the workers and their families, and the investment in plant, equipment and so on that is needed simply to maintain the society's means of production in working order. The 'surplus product', on the other hand, is that portion of social output used to maintain the non-producing members of society (a heterogeneous lot, ranging from the idle rich, to politicians, to the armed forces, to retired working people), plus that portion devoted to net expansion of the stock of means of production. Any society capable of supporting non-producing members, and of generating an economically progressive programme of net investment, must have some mechanism for compelling or inducing the direct producers to produce more than is needed simply to maintain themselves. The precise nature of this mechanism is, according to Marxist theory, the key to understanding the society as a whole-not just the 'economy', but also the general form of the state and of politics. Our claim is that the Soviet system put into effect a mode of Synopsis of the book In the remainder of this introduction we offer a synopsis of the main arguments to come, in the light of the problems and issues identified above. Chapters 1 and 2 tackle issues connected with inequality and inequity. The first gives an overview of the bases of inequality in capitalist society-bases which, as we have suggested above, social democratic amelioration is unable to eradicate. The

2006

The road to overcoming the capitalist mode of production was indicated by the founders of modern socialism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. This road is constructed in the political practice of the struggle between social classes, which has particularities in each country and, therefore, is not a pre-made model to be implemented. It is a road that should be guided by a theoretical framework that does not consist of a mere abstract lucubration but in a dialectical relationship between real and concrete thought. In this sense, we find in the Marxian thought the basis of the critical theory of the functioning of capitalism and the elements for its overcoming. Three of these deserve to be highlighted: 1) the resolution of the contradiction between productive forces and relations of production; 2) the conquest of political power for the socialist transition; and 3) the disappearance of the social classes and the State as we know them today, that is, the advent of communist society or the communist mode of production

The aim of this paper is to show that the collapse of the Soviet-type centralised planning model makes it necessary for Marxist thinkers to identify a new production mode which can be assumed to sprout from the ashes of capitalism as the offshoot of the stepwise evolution of the one currently in place. In the author's opinion, this new production mode exists and is a system of worker-controlled firms, i.e. a model that can be rated as the outgrowth of the capitalistic dynamic since it is this that taught workers how to manage production on their own. Insofar as it is true that the 'goalposts' of modern democracy are majority rule and the underlying principle that each head is entitled to one vote, it is hard to see why this principle should hold good for politics but not also for economic processes. Setting out from this reflection, the author contends that the precondition for extending democracy today is proceeding from the political arena to the social sphere. Whereas central planning is founded on the utopian assumption that a social system may prove viable although it denies workers a say in decision-making and the right to pursue the profit motive, a cooperative firm system would not carry any utopian overtones since the members of worker'controlled firms would engage in business with the aim of maximising both their incomes and the satisfactioin associated with their work. The paper argues that, if a society resolves to adopt a plan and this plan is expected to be developed by close reference to the market, its organisation would prove much more efficient in a system of worker-controlled firms than in one with capitalist-owned firms.

Monthly Review, 2020

Any serious treatment of the renewal of socialism today must begin with capitalism's creative destruction of the bases of all social existence. Since the late 1980s, the world has been engulfed in an epoch of catastrophe capitalism, manifested today in the convergence of (1) the planetary ecological crisis, (2) the global epidemiological crisis, and (3) the unending world economic crisis. Added to this are the main features of today's "empire of chaos," including the extreme system of imperialist exploitation unleashed by global commodity chains; the demise of the relatively stable liberal-democratic state with the rise of neoliberalism and neofascism; and the emergence of a new age of global hegemonic instability accompanied by increased dangers of unlimited war.

Review of Radical Political Economics, 2006

To meet today's challenges, including successful mobilization around people's most immediate needs, a rigorous and inspiring vision of a new society-socialism-is more necessary than ever. Without creating rigid or utopian schemes, we can affirm and develop some of the most essential elements in that vision: progressive transcendence of the alienating and polarizing content of spontaneous markets; democratic coordination and planning, at all levels from central to decentral; and creative engagement with the vast potentials of modern information technology. This project must also recover and embrace all of the lessons, both positive and negative, of the twentieth-century postcapitalist experience, especially that of the USSR.

Socialism and Democracy, 2018

Amin argues that "capitalism cannot continue indefinitely as permanent accumulation and the exponential growth it entails will end up in certain death for humanity." Globalized capitalism "is ripe to be overtaken by another form of civilization, one more advanced and necessary". There is no inevitability to the apocalyptic end, but neither is there any necessity for a progressive transition to socialism. Socialism is a potential, so the question is, how might this transition occur, where, and when? In his view, ripeness requires capital accumulation to have reached a point at which people's "capacities for action" have been "enabled" and they have become culturally and ethically mature. 1 Unfortunately, where capital accumulation has proceeded the furthest, in the globalized centres, there is very little evidence of enabling or of cultural and ethical maturity. Radical potential would still appear deeper in the peripheralized South (which Amin acknowledges: Latin America and the "Arab Spring"). The principal problem is that Amin does not pay sufficient attention to the conditions necessary for the development of the subjective factors necessary for socialist transition. Like the transition to capitalism, which Amin said required a conscious ideology, the transition to socialism requires a different consciousness. The above phrase, however, is as close as Amin gets to discussing the conditions for creating such a radical consciousness. Implicitly at this stage of his argument, then, Amin has adopted what Lenin referred to as "spontaneity" and rejected the need for centralized organization. The essays Amin has collected for this volume, which were written between 1990 and 2015, range widely over time and space, and have been rewritten in part in an exercise of clarification. He argues that any Marxist analysis must take both of these dimensions into account. Whereas historical Marxism and the Leninist theory subordinate geography to history, and "know only class struggle", in world systems theory class struggle is virtually eliminated "because it is incapable of changing the course imposed on it by the evolution of the system as a whole." 2 Amin proposes to combine both approaches by analyzing "the dynamics of the local transformations" in the context of social struggles, and the articulation of these regional dynamics relative to the world system. 3 He focuses on the emergence and future of the centerperiphery contradiction in globalized capitalism, the history of the Soviet and (more briefly) Chinese experiences in building a socialist alternative, and then advances some policy requirements of a contemporary socialist movement that is required but is, at best, embryonic. The World System: Center/Periphery At all its stages, globalized capitalism "can only produce, reproduce, and deepen the center/periphery contrast. The capitalist path is an impasse for 80% of humanity." 4 The old center/periphery system was based on a set of national production economies linked in a hierarchal world system. Sine about 1980, the new globalized production system has dismantled this national production system. Oligopolistic companies in the US, Europe, and Japan (the triad

Economic and Political Weekly, 2019

Review of Socialism and Commodity Production: Essay in Marx Revival by Paresh Chattopadhyay, Leiden, and Boston: Brill, 2018; pp xiii + 300, `8,175 (hardcover).

NOVA SCIENCE, 2018

This easy to read book explores the fundamental ideas of socialism as a prelude to its critical reappraisal of their implementation in the Soviet revolutionary experiment. The book then turns to the seismic economic changes of the neoliberal era which it claims now preclude both national social democratic and Soviet-style paths to socialism. Rather, it is argued, if socialism is to become a force for change in the 21st century, wholly new economic and environmental considerations compel it to adopt a fresh orientation around current designs of democratic ecosocialism. Yet, the herculean challenges this poses tend not to be fully apprehended even among socialist proponents. Table of Contents: Preface Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter 2. From Socialism as Idea to Twentieth Century Experiment Chapter 3. Socialist Failure and Rethinking Chapter 4. Socialists Confront a Changed World Chapter 5. Ecosocialism and New Democratic Designs Chapter 6. We are All Socialists Now Chapter 7. Conclusion