Internationalist Perspective

Theses on State Capitalism vs. Real Socialism

June 27, 2008 on 7:43 pm | In Uncategorized |

The following article was sent to us by the Chicago Revolutionary Network for discussion

THESIS ON STATE CAPITALISM VS. REAL SOCIALISM (Expanded Version)

Dave, Diana and Perry of Chirvenet, December 23, 2007

The CENTRAL question for every “Revolution” is WHICH CLASS runs the major means of production and government. If the major means of production is run by a state bureaucracy, that’s STATE CAPITALISM. Of course, there are other forms of STATE CAPITALISM such as in Sweden (social welfare state), and the U.$.A. (social welfare and regulation of the class struggle – NLRB and Taft-Hartley Law). However, if the major means of production is run by the working class, then that’s REAL SOCIALISM! If the economy is based on money, wages, prices, profits and commodities, then that’s CAPITALISM. But if the economy is based on ‘FROM EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR ABILITY [and desire], TO EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR NEED [and wants]’ (Marx & Engels, ‘The Communist Manifesto’), that’s REAL SOCIALISM or communism! If there is a state, standing army, police, prisons, etc. then it is a CAPITALIST STATE. But if the voluntary government is of the workers, by the workers, and for the workers, then the government is REAL SOCIALIST! REAL SOCIALISM can only work if it is a GLOBAL ON-GOING REVOLUTION! As Gil Scott Heron said in ‘The Revolution will not be Televised,’ “the revolution WILL put you in the driver’s seat.”

Obviously, there are no contemporary examples of heroic working class attempts at real socialist revolution. But what about historically? Below we list several, including the key reason for their demise:

THE PARIS COMMUNE OF 1871 French workers seize control of Paris, abolish the State and institute communism economically, but don’t disarm the French ruling class, who, with the aid of the German army, create a bloodbath of Parisian workers. Marx adds to his theoretical arsenal the famous, or infamous, depending on your viewpoint, “the dictatorship of the proletariat.”

THE RUSSIAN PROLETARIAN, OCTOBER REVLOUTION Under the false banner of “the dictatorship of the proletariat,” Lenin et al shut down the revolutionary factory committee movement in favour of the trade unions, which they controlled , and the Bolshevik Party hijacked the revolutionary Soviets, leading to “the dictatorship of the party.” The last attempt at revolution by the Russian working class was the Kronstadt rebellion in the early 1920’s, which was drowned in blood by the so-called Red Army led by Trotsky and approved by Lenin. Stalin’s murderous State Capitalism followed and the rest, they say, is history.

THE HUNGARIAN REVOLUTION OF 1956. The Hungarian working class creates revolutionary worker councils that run production throughout the country, and essentially govern. The Russians invade Hungary with tanks etc., and put down the revolution militarily.

THE FRENCH WORKING CLASS GENERAL STRIKE AND MASS STUDENT REVOLT OF 1968. The “masses were in motion” so to speak, revolutionary motion, how empowering and exhilarating that must have been! But lacking the goal of Real Socialism to march forward, this revolutionary upsurge was co-opted through clever reforms by the French ruling class.

THE CHILEAN AGRICULTURAL WORTKERS EXPROPRIATION F OLANDOWNDERS IN 1973. Unfortunately, these revolutionary take-overs did not find a timely echo among the industrial workers, which resulted in the CIA-led fascist coup of General Pinochet against reformist President Allende, murdering Allende and thousands of revolutionary workers.

All we can do now is take revolutionary inspiration from the spontaneous revolutionary actions of these heroic revolutionary workers of our international class, and convey what REAL SOCIALISM means to our working class engaging in a revolutionary dialogue with other REVOLUTIONARIES and REVOLUTIONARY-MINDED WORKERS.