Date: 07 Sep 96 16:29:24 EDT From: jc mullen <100663.643-AT-CompuServe.COM> Subject: Re: Is socialism possible ? Is socialism possible ? Finding the right questions is always at least half the battle. On a theoretical level, this is the question of 1) whether capital can continue its domination of production on a world level indefinitely. (ie does Marx's theory of crises still apply). 2) Is the domination of labour possible : ie can very large numbers of workers more or less democratically organize production for need. This second question decomposes into a) Are people naturally incapable in some way of creating and maintaining such a society. - This requires an analysis of historical experiences of creating such societies. Most experiences are very embryonic (Catalonia 1936, the Paris Commune, Hungary 1956, Iran 1979, Portugal 1974) and obviously maintaining it very long only refers to the Russian experience >from say 1917 to 1927. - It also requries an analysis of what is and isn't human nature if there is such a thing. b) Are people accidentally (in the philosophical sense) incapable of creating and maintaining such a society. ie even if they are not naturally too egoistic or stupid, are they because of the consciousness they have developed under capitalism incapable of doing so ? c) Is there some automatic inherent process of degeneration unlinked to the political will and strategy of the working class (some blind social force which makes revolutions degenerate.)? 3) Is there some other force apart from the capitalists and the workers who can take in hand the development of human society for long periods of time ? .(Most theories which say there is tend to move away from materialist explanations of politics). I think that more or less wraps us the questions. I think everybody agrees that barbarism is possible : that is that it is possible for the capitalist world economy to collapse and take us back a century or two through various forms of economic and political chaos. Most people however think that real socialism is impossible. Me being a revolutionary socialist, it's fairly clear my answers to the above questions. I hope I'm right; :-) John Mullen Socialisme International France --- from list marxism2-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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