The ABCs of Socialism
by Susan Rosenthal
Forget everything you ever learned about socialism. It was probably wrong.
Socialism has nothing to do with state control. The governments of the United States and China control a similar proportion of their economies (about 30 percent), yet neither nation is socialist.
Both the U.S. and China are capitalist countries, with economies based on the private ownership of production. Socialism is based on the collective control of production.
Nations can’t be socialist. Only the world can be socialist. Where capitalism has divided the world into competing nation states, socialism requires global cooperation.
Any nation where workers took collective control of production would be an intolerable threat to world capitalism. A workers’ revolution would have to spread or be crushed. And wherever it spread, national boundaries would break down, removing barriers to the movement of people, goods and services.
Only one class can rule. Either the capitalist class imposes its will on society or the working class does. That’s why socialism is not possible in one workplace, one city, one state, or one country. That’s why there are no socialist economies in the world today, no nations where the working-class collectively controls production. Not any – not even close.
Who can we trust?
That people react so negatively to the idea of socialism indicates how deeply capitalism has damaged our connections with one another.
Who is better qualified to meet human needs – the elite capitalist class that produces only for profit; or the majority working class that produces the goods and provides the services we need?
Who is more cooperative – the bosses who compete for profit, or the workers who must pull together to get the job done?
Socialism is based on sharing and cooperation. Humanity has spent the vast majority of its history in classless, sharing societies. Modern socialism would differ from primitive socialism in two important ways: it would be organized on a global scale, and it would be based on abundance, not scarcity.
Socialism is not inevitable. It’s true that capitalism can’t go on forever. However, the alternative depends on what we do. Either the majority will organize itself to create a collective, socialist alternative, or we will continue our descent into barbarism and annihilation.
This latest crisis of capitalism promises only more misery for most of us. It’s time we believed in ourselves and in our ability to organize a much better future.
As Rosa Luxemburg insisted,
Socialism will not and cannot be created by decrees; nor can it be established by any government, however socialist. Socialism must be created by the masses, by every worker. Where the chains of capitalism are forged, there they must be broken. Only that is socialism, and only thus can socialism be created.
See also A Social Definition of Class and “Decide Which Side You’re On” (Chapter 13 of POWER and Powerlessness)
Susan Rosenthal is a physician and a socialist.
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