Weekly Worker 368 Thursday January 25 2001

5. The transition to the communitarian system

[The socialist state] [Socialism and democracy] [Communism]

Socialism is not a mode of production. It is the transition from capitalism to communism. Socialism is the communism which emerges from capitalist society. It begins as capitalism with a workers’ state. Socialism therefore bears the moral, economic and intellectual imprint of capitalism; it is the lower stage of communism.

In general, socialism is defined as the rule of the working class.

The division of labour cannot be abolished overnight. It manifests itself under socialism in the contradictions between mental and manual labour, town and country, men and women, as well as social, regional and national differences.

Classes and social strata exist under socialism because of different positions occupied in relationship to the means of production, the roles played in society and the way they receive their income.

Class and social contradictions necessitate the continuation of the class struggle. However, this struggle is determined by the new alignments brought about by the overthrow of the capitalist state and the transition to communism.

The class struggle can, in the last analysis, go in two directions, depending on the balance of forces inside and outside the country and the class policy being followed. It can go backwards to capitalism or it can advance towards communism.

While socialism creates the objective basis for solving social contradictions, these contradictions need to be solved with a correct political line and the development of mass, active democracy. This is essential, as communism is not a spontaneous development. Social strata will only finally disappear under communism.

5.1. The socialist state

In its first stage, communism has not reached complete maturity or completely rid itself of the traditions and remnants of capitalism. One of these remnants is bourgeois right, which means that the communist principle, ‘to each according to their needs’, cannot be applied under socialism.

The concept of ‘right’ continues under socialism due to relative scarcity. Everyone has the right to receive from society only as much as they give. As speedily as possible that will come to be judged according not to the law of value, but straightforward time. Nevertheless right depends on contribution, albeit calculated as labour hours. The abolition of this bourgeois right is dependant on greatly reducing necessary labour time.

Socialism transforms the commodity back into a product. It replaces the law of value with the law of the plan. To begin with, social labour can only be measured indirectly by the average labour that is socially necessary. However, through the plan labour becomes directly social.

The clearest indication that socialism is a class society is the existence of and need for a state - an instrument of class rule. The socialist state - ie, working class rule, or what Marx called the dictatorship of the proletariat - is needed in the first place against the resistance of the forces of capitalism. Though this can involve draconian measures it must be emphasised that, as socialism is the rule of the overwhelming majority in society, the socialist state is characterised by the fullest flowering of democracy.

The repressive role of the state is not only connected with overcoming the capitalist class, but also with the division of labour. Until work becomes life’s prime want, the need for the state will continue. This means laws, courts, the obligation to work. The persistence of bourgeois right expresses the fact that work is based on coercion.

To consider the state as repression against enemy classes is right in the last analysis. However, the proletarian state exists over all the individuals in society and it represents a force over the individuals who belong to the class which rules society.

The socialist state dispenses with much of the bureaucratic and military baggage of the capitalist state - it is a semi-state. Beginning when the working class establishes its own rule, it lasts till the higher stage of communism. During this period it undergoes internal changes and its function changes according to the development of the class struggle both inside and outside the country. These changes are the process in which the state withers away.

The establishment of the World Union of Socialist Republics is the moment when socialism becomes fully mature. The state cannot entirely disappear in any country before this stage.

Both the withering away of the state and the disappearance of classes can only be completed on the basis of the socialisation of the productive forces on a global scale. Socialism is a worldwide revolution and has to be worldwide in scope. There can be no socialism in one country.

5.2. Socialism and democracy

Socialism and democracy are inseparable. The rule by the majority is in the first place attained by the truly mass, truly democratic smashing of the bourgeois state and its replacement by the organs of working class struggle, which become the organs of the new state.

However, this is not the end of the matter. From the start all spheres of administration must be simplified so as to ensure that functions of the state are fully democratised. The aim is not rule by a strata of specialists (ie, bureaucracy - an alienated form of organisation) in the name of the majority. On the contrary, our aim is direct rule by the majority itself. Hence measures have to be taken, not only for the destruction of the old state bureaucracy, but also to prevent the new state from turning against the people.

Socialism must progressively involve the working class in the administration and running of the state. Democracy cannot be understood as merely the casting of votes. It is a process of the constant forming of ideas and taking of decisions. For this reason, it demands the opportunity for broad discussion in every sphere and at every level. Without platforms and oppositions for the presentation of different views, and in which open discussion is the norm, democracy can only be formal.

Thus we need democracy in the following areas:

• The organisation of the state apparatus.
• The organisation of the political system.
• The organisation of the economy.

The key to realising this development of active, mass democracy is a radical shortening of the necessary working day. Only when everyone has the time to become administrators will there be no administrators and no division of labour.

5.3. Communism

Socialism in Britain will start from a relatively high level of technique, output and culture. Once the hard task of winning working class state power has been achieved, we will advance directly towards communism. The speed of that advance is dictated by the completion of the world revolution and the correctness of the policy of the working class and its vanguard.

Victory of the world revolution will facilitate democratic planning on a world scale by the World Union of Socialist States. Even with existing levels of labour productivity in a country like Britain, redirecting unproductive and unemployed workers to socially useful work would allow a reduction of necessary labour to something like 10 or 15 hours a week. This, not the drive to raise overall production, is the main social task of socialism.

Through society reabsorbing the functions of the state, the need for it withers away. Democracy (a form of the state) negates itself and gives way to general freedom. The higher stage of communism is a free association of producers. Everybody will contribute according to their ability and take according to need. Real human history begins and society leaves behind the “realm of necessity”. In the realm of freedom, people will become rounded, fully social individuals who can for the first time truly develop their natural humanity.

This is what we want to achieve. To win the prize we will overcome all obstacles.