File spoon-archives/marxism2.archive/marxism2_1996/96-09-20.183, message 10


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



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