39 KiB
Crash Course Socialism
Contents
Crash Course Socialism
Surplus Value
Socialism is an economic and social system defined by social ownership of the means of production. (Workers democratically own and operate the places in which they work, as opposed to private control of production aka capitalism).
The means of production are non-human inputs that help create economic value, such as factories, industrial machinery, workplaces, large tracts of land, etc. The means of production are the means of life. Socialists refer to the means of production as capital, or private property, IE, the things which give the people who own them power over those who don't. Private property in the socialist context shouldn't be confused with personal property, such as your home, car, computer, and other possessions, which would be protected. Private property is in actuality a weasel-word for absentee property, whose ownership is claimed through title only (and not use), for the purpose of extracting rent from the actual users, occupants, or workers.
In a capitalist society the means of production are owned and controlled privately, by those that can afford them (the capitalist, aka those with capital). Production is carried out to benefit the capitalist (production for profit). Workers are paid a wage, and receive that amount regardless of how much value they produce. Socialists call this difference the surplus, profit, unpaid labor, exploitation, or wage theft, IE:
Wage Theft = Worker Value Added - Wage Paid
A 1983 report by England national income and expenditures found that on average, 26 minutes of every hour worked (or 43% of labor value added) by English workers across a wide range of industries went to various exploiting or unproductive groups, with workers receiving only 57% of their pre-tax productive output as wages1. In other words, at least 40% of the work you do every day is stolen.
Capitalists use the surplus to push out competitors and gain market share, leading to the destruction of most small businesses, with just a few companies controlling our food, media, energy, transportation, and finances.
In the table below, both capital and surplus value are controlled by a company's owners, who usually appoint a board of directors. This owning class(called Capitalists, or the Bourgeoisie) make up a tiny minority of the population.
| Capitalist firm / Economy | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Value | Worker value added | Surplus Value |
Other wages | Owners(includes shareholders) |
| Board of Directors | ||||
| Managers | ||||
| Clerks | ||||
| Capital Accumulation | Market capture | |||
| Taxes | ||||
| Advertising | ||||
| Political capture | ||||
| Wages | ||||
| Capital | Physical assets | |||
| Intellectual assets | ||||
| Money / Finance capital | ||||
Wage workers are completely dependent on selling their labor power to those in control of production in order to gain access to the necessities of life (money for food, shelter, clothing, etc). Its similarities to chattel slavery has lead many to term wage work as wage slavery, with voluntary employment being simply a false choice between one exploiter or another.
Technological advancements, instead of benefiting workers, result in decreased or stagnant wages, worsening bargaining power, or mass layoffs. For example, a machine that replaces 10 workers results in their firing, resulting in a benefit for the machine owner, and an economic hardship to the fired workers.
Increase in profits due primarily to automation
The difference between these two lines is the surplus.
History, and Human Nature
Capitalism has nothing to do with human nature. People can be greedy, or cooperative, depending on the incentive structure and ideology of the socioeconomic system they live in, which is usually out of their control. For the vast majority of human history, small groups of people survived by foraging, growing, or hunting for food as a community, in a mode of life termed primitive communism. Communal sharing was essential to the survival of the group. Markets likewise were rare, since communities tended to be self-sufficient. Rituals, harvest festivals, a group of elders deciding fair distribution, or communal decision-making accomplished what markets do today. Private property(and male-dominated societies) came into existence with the growth of large-scale agriculture and animal domestication(A historically male-dominated activity). These tended to be passed on to male descendents(which in turn required strict female sexual control, isolation, and increasing objectification), aggregating into fewer and fewer land-owners, and creating class antagonisms between an owning, and a working class.
In the modern day, there is the communism of the family, in which family members share freely with one another. There are community welfare organizations, food banks, as well as thousands of undocumented and unpublicized acts of kindness which show that cooperation endures even in spite of the individualism of the current dominant economic system.
Capitalism evolved historically out of feudalism and slave societies, all three being dependent on a dominant ruling class receiving the surplus of a subordinate class.
Socialism as a diverse philosophy arose out of a criticism after the french revolution, in which a capitalist class(the bourgeoisie) seemed to merely replace feudal lords to become the new ruling class. Marxism is a socialist tradition, which places emphasis on the means of production, your relation to them, and the inherent class struggles involved between those who control the productive forces and those who don't, as the primary force driving economic and social relations.
Value and Conformity
Economic systems, such as Capitalism, don't invent, create or build anything. Workers do. (See Soviet Space Program).
The labor theory of value recognizes that our most valuable resource is time, specifically socially useful labor time. Under capitalism, the subjective theory of value allows the mega-rich to justify owning thousands of lifetimes of stolen labor.
Socialism has nothing to do with conformity, restriction of artistic expression, or equality in abilities. It instead proposes economic and political equality through the abolition of classes, placing all citizens on an equal footing with regard to the means of production. It is Capitalism, with its inherent authoritarian hierarchies, that imposes conformity on society through vapid consumerism, and through the authoritarian nature of capitalist firms themselves. A chain of command ensures that orders from capitalists drop like a rock, to dominate the actions of every worker.
Democracy
Socialists view democracy under capitalism to be an unrealistic utopia, better labeled as Bourgeois Democracy, or democracy for the rich. Under capitalism, political parties, representatives, infrastructure, and the media are controlled by capitalists, who place restrictions and limitations on the ability and choices of the working class. Bourgeois democracies tend to be highly plutocratic, resulting in legislation favorable to the wealthy, regardless of the population's actual preferences. Examples of restrictions include the First Past the Post voting system(which enforces capitalist two party domination), gerrymandering, long term limits with no way to recall unpopular representatives, restrictions crafted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, and inconvienient voting locations and times. In short, political democracy can't exist without economic democracy.
Unsustainable Growth
During Capitalisms' growth period, when there are new markets and labor forces to expand to, capitalism can appear stable for the richer consumers whose products are actually being produced by exploited, poorer workforces. Likewise, in a labor shortage, as existed in the newly industrializing US, capitalists have no choice but to keep wages high(and the rate of exploitation low) in order to bring in workers from other countries, and keep them from running off into the interior. In the southern US, African slavery was used to solve the labor shortage, and keep exploitation high(since no wages were paid), and consumer products such as tobacco and cotton cheap. In order to take advantage of cheap labor, capitalists usually build production far away from where those products are actually bought and consumed, meaning that most consumer goods are shipped by ocean-freight, wasting energy and polluting the environment.
In actuality, Capitalism is highly unstable, made up of a series of crises, economic bubbles, booms, and eventual busts, termed business cycles, that occur every few years, with varying intensity, but with most of the resulting burden shifted to the working class. The capitalist state often intervenes to prop up failing businesses, and bail out members of its own class.
Defending the Status Quo
The reason why most people are reticent to read anti-capitalist literature, and discouraged from participating in the class struggle through unionism and political movements, is due to capitalist indoctrination and ideology. In Marxist philosophy, cultural hegemony is the domination of a culturally diverse society, by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of that society... the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores, so that their imposed, ruling-class worldview becomes the accepted cultural norm; the universally valid dominant ideology, which justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.
Since the 1960s, there has been a labor surplus, due to an decreased demand for workers due to computers and automation, and an increased supply of workers(women, and low-paid manufacturing and agriculture in less-developed countries). The extra, unemployed workers make up a reserve army of labor, keeping wages low, and desperation high. Increased worker productivity(due to computers and automation) mean that the surplus(the difference between worker productivity and wage paid), is historically higher than ever. This trend will only continue, and workers will naturally become more class conscious, as they see their exploitation increase, and their livelihood decrease.
Both feudalism and slavery were thought to be highly stable systems, and even they lasted hundreds of years until their eventual overthrow.
The State, and Revolution
Private ownership of the means of production was established through force and private tyranny, and is only upheld through force. The state is a special organization of force used for the suppression of one class by another which (in capitalist society) exercises a monopoly on violence to forcibly maintain the right to private property. The modern state developed alongside the emergent capitalist system as the bourgeoisie seized political and economic control. It arises from the irreconcilable class antagonisms that exist in society.
The State, under capitalist society, which protects private property and upholds the capitalist mode of production, is an instrument wielded by the bourgeoisie to suppress the proletariat. So long as there are classes in society, a State must exist.
Marxists aim to replace the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, with a transitional dictatorship of the proletariet, smashing the presently existing bourgeois state apparatus, and replacing it with a new state constructed on the basis of worker power, destroying all the elements which exist to oppress workers, and safeguarding the ones that help workers. Once the proletarian state possesses political power and controls the means of production, it will wither away over time as it suppresses the bourgeoisie and moves toward a classless, egalitarian society. Eventually, the use of force is no longer necessary to suppress class antagonisms, because there are no classes, and the oppressive elements of the proletarian state wither away.
Socialism as an economic system is distinct from neoliberalism, as well as social democracy/Welfare state capitalism, which aims to band-aid the ills of capitalism while leaving the exploitation inherent in wage slavery intact. Social services provided by the capitalist-controlled state have nothing to do with socialism.
Many Marxists call the totalitarian regimes typically called socialist, as more correctly defined as State Capitalism, since production was controlled by state bureaucracies who also distributed the surplus, rather than through the democratic input of workers. However, the early stages of the 1917 russian revolution were far more progressive than is typically portrayed; Divorce was legalized, Homosexuality was decriminalized, land was distributed to the peasantry, banks were nationalized, control of factories was given to worker's councils, the workday was shortened, wages were fixed at a higher rate, all elected officials could now be immediately recalled; it created mass literacy drives, free nurseries, communal kitchens, and laundries. Western nations(including the US) sent troops to russia to fight against the gains of the revolution. Most of these revolutionary gains were lost due to a multitude of factors(civil war, a drastic decrease of the numbers of working class (50% decrease in the industrial centers), decimation of russian industry) that merit deeper study.
Many burgeoning socialist attempts seized state power, in order to defend themselves against inevitable capitalist military intervention, of which very few have survived US interventionism. This talk by Micheal Parenti is a good reflection and criticism on the soviet experiment.
The famines and economic hardship typically associated with communism in Russia and China, were a result of the painful process of industrialization, and the transition from agriculture to industry. It would be the case whether capitalists, communists, or enlightened rulers were in power. During England's rapid industrialization, life expectancy in some cities was less than 30 years. This is the case with every country in the process of industrialization. Lysenkoism, and a period of droughts made the problem worse.
Exaggerated death counts blamed on communism and usually attributed to Stalin or Mao are often due to western historians attributing all deaths to the economic system. This would be the equivalent of attributing deaths from the Dust Bowl to FDR. Yet UNICEF, RESULTS, and Bread for the World estimate that 15 million people die each year from preventable poverty, of whom 11 million are children under the age of five. (source)
Even if we were to fully accept the western propaganda that socialist regimes have killed 100 million people, then within 10 years, capitalism kills more children under the age of 5 than socialism did in 150 years.
The Socialist Future
Communism is the highest developed stage of socialism wherein there is no state, no money, no class system. The means of production are owned by all and provide for everyone's needs. There are also presumably high levels of automation so most do not have to work.
Socialism can't exist within a capitalist system, much like capitalism can't exist within a socialist system. There is either private ownership of the means of production, or social and democratic. Many socialists point to directly democratic worker’s councils as an ideal way to organize production, with gift economies for abundant goods, and labor voucher economies for scarce/luxury goods.
Past and present socialist/anarchist societies include - Revolutionary Catalonia, Anarchist Aragon, Shinmin Province in Korea/Manchuria, Free Territory of Ukraine, The Bavarian Soviet Republic, The Paris Commune, The Zapatista controlled areas of Chiapas (current day), Magonista Baja California, Shanghai People's Commune, Rojava (current day), Communist Marinaleda, USSR (debated)
Revolutionary vs Evolutionary socialism, Economic planning with labor vouchers vs. Market socialism, are a few debated topics within socialism.
FAQ
Why are communists against markets?
Why do communists dislike liberals?
What's the role of the state in the revolution, and what is a state?
What's the difference between anarchism and communism?
Why do Marxists oppose individual terrorism? (Trotsky)
What are Mao's contributions to Marxism?(MLM)
Is it true that Socialism has killed X million people, and how many has capitalism killed?
Do communists defend the DPRK(Democratic People's Republic of North Korea)? short answer: no.
Resources
Videos
10 minute intro to Karl Marx --- (Reminder for newcomers that private property refers exclusively to the means of production, not your home and other possessions which are considered personal property)
Introduction to Marxism by Professor Richard D. Wolff (absolutely essential, the best video we can show newcomers to socialism)
Socialism for Dummies by Professor Richard D. Wolff (necessary for north americans)
Karl Marx and Marxism - BBC documentary by Stuart Hall
Introduction to Anarchism by Noam Chomsky
Chomsky on american or right-libertarianism
Against Capitalism by Jerry Cohen
Capitalist exploitation explained
Literature
Modern introductory books
Socialist books starter pack (torrent)
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Danny Katch - Socialism…. Seriously
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Paul D’Amatto - the meaning of Marxism
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Jacobin - The ABCs of Socialism
Peter Gelderloos - How Nonviolence Protects the State
Essays/Introductions
Albert Einstein - Why Socialism?
Engels - Principles of Communism (A great glossary of socialist terms)
Lenin - The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism
Lenin - A liberal professor on Equality
Eugene Debs - Capitalism and Socialism
Marxist literature
Engels - Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
Marx/Engels - The Communist Manifesto
Marx - Wage Labour and Capital
Rosa Luxemburg - Reform or Revolution
Lenin - “Left-Wing” Communism: an Infantile Disorder
Lenin - Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism
Kropotkin - The Conquest of Bread
Marxian economics
Cockshott and Cottrell - Towards a New Socialism (pdf) epub
History books
Howard Zinn - A Peoples History of the United States
CLR James - The Black Jacobins
John Reid - The Ten Days that Shook the World
Eduardo Galeano - Open Veins of Latin America
George Orwell - Homage to Catalonia
Trotsky - History of the Russian Revolution
Huey P. Newton - Revolutionary Suicide
Joshua Bloom - Black Against Empire
Psychology
Robert Cialdini - The Psychology of persuasion (not explicitly Marxist, but a great breakdown of the main psychological tactics used by exploiters to manipulate us)
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Audiobooks
Lenin - The State and Revolution
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Trotsky - Fascism - What it is and How to Fight It
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Rosa Luxemburg - Reform or Revolution
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Howard Zinn - A People's History of the United States
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Marx and Engels - The Communist Manifesto
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Marx - Critique of the Gotha Programme
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Marx - Wage Labour and Capital
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Paul D'Amato - The Meaning of Marxism
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Robert Cialdini - The Psychology of persuasion
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Films
Pride(2014), Reds(1981), Salt of the Earth(1954), Snowpiercer(2013), Libertarias(1996), The Trotsky(2009), Battleship Potemkin(1925), Land and Freedom(1995), The Spook who sat by the door(1973)
Organizations
Parties / Groups
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), Socialist Alternative (SA), Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), Redneck Revolt / John Brown Gun Club
Online Communities
/r/LateStageCapitalism, /r/socialism, /r/anarchism, /r/communism, /r/socialistprogrammers, /r/TheTrotskyists, /r/antifa
101s: /r/socialism_101, /r/anarchy101, /r/communism101
Memes: /r/FULLCOMMUNISM, /r/COMPLETEANARCHY, /r/ShitLiberalsSay
Credit to /u/gab91, /r/socialism, /r/socialism_101, /r/communism101.