5-03-09, 8:18 am

Editor's note: This article is a response to this article titled 'Eleven Talking Points on 21st Socialism.'

'The current discussion around socialism in left and progressive circles in the U.S. needs to be placed in a more substantive arena. This is an effort to do so. I take note in advance of the criticism that the following eleven working hypotheses are rather dry and formal. But in light of the faux ‘socialisms’ bandied about in the headlines and sound bytes of the mass media in the wake of the financial crisis, especially the absurd claim in the media of right-wing populism that the Obama administration is Marxist and socialist, I felt something a little more rigorous might be helpful. Obviously, criticism and commentary is invited.' -- Carl Davidson 'I would like to get to the minimum list of talking points upon which 20,000 people could agree, and that would be coherent enough to guide much greater practical and principled unity on the Left.' -- John Case

1. Some of socialism’s fundamental building blocks are already present in US society. The means of production, for the most part, are sufficiently developed to support, in forseeable time – the next ten years – a workforce where at least two years of college, or equivalent, is available to every worker. The US labor force, again for the most part, is highly skilled at all levels of production, management, marketing, and finance. The kernels of socialist labor organization are also to be found in the explicitly social and interdependent character of large scale global enterprise; in the emergence and growth of realms of work and enterprise where the products are intangible and the capital merely 'human'; in the inherently 'open source' – in economics-speak, 'public good' – essence of much intellectual property; kernels of socialism are scattered across the landscape in cooperatives, socially organized human services, and centralized and widespread mass means of many-to-many communication and supply/demand data management. Many earlier attempts at socialism did not have these advantages.

2. Socialism is first of all a democratic political system where the interests of working people have attained and hold the preponderance of political power and thus play the critical leading role in society. It is still a class society, but one in which 'from each according to his ability, to each according to his work' is the guiding principle of equity. Public investments, in health, education, and dignified retirement are the key to realizing the first part of the principle – guaranteeing that each indeed can fulfill the limits of their ability. The steadily advancing capacity of technology to automate all 'algorithmic' tasks undermines the material foundation of work characterized by Marx as proletarian – work that, because of its ability to divided into homogeneous time-units lends itself to the sharpest and purest form of class conflict at the points of production. Instead work exchanged salary (even in material production – like maintenance) is increasingly of a 'service' nature, and further, is of a kind difficult to alienate from the new means of production – often pure human capital. Compensation to these forms of labor will more and more consist of ownership options or dividends, savings and retraining opportunities. In a word, work will increasingly be compensated by dividing capital in addition to wages. While classic socialists envisioned a future classless society where exploiting class privileges are abolished and classes and class distinctions generally wither away, both nationally and globally, I do not go that far: We cannot know the exact form of future relations that will based on even more profound transformations of technology, work and society. The proletarian and the finance capitalist of the past, however, are both leaving the stage of history, as Marx predicted.

3. Socialism at the base is a transitional economic system anchored in the social mode of production brought into being by capitalist development over several centuries. Its economic system is necessarily mixed, and makes use of markets, especially in goods and services, which are regulated, especially regarding the environment. Markets are a function of scarcity, and also assume a division of labor between millions of producers engaged in production for exchange. All economies of any scale in a time of scarcity – which for most commodities is all time – have markets, even if they are disguised as 'black' or 'tiered' markets. In addition to regulated markets, socialism will also feature planning, especially on the macro level of infrastructure development, in investment of public assets and funds, and other arenas where markets have failed. Planning will especially be required to face the challenges of uneven development and harsh inequalities on a global scale, as well as the challenge of moving from a carbon and uranium based energy system to one based on renewable green energy sources. The socialisms of the last century fell or stagnated due to failure to develop the proper interplay between plans and markets.

4. Socialism will be anchored in public direction of the main productive forces and natural resources. This can be achieved by various means, but must include a substantial increase in rights and responsibilities of workers in all enterprises. The recovery from the current crisis demands a greener economy, a less risky management of the financial resources of the country, and a full employment guarantee. Workers must have the right to independent unions to protect their social and daily interests, in addition to increased rights as worker-owners in the governance of firms founded primarily on human capital. Under socialism the government will also serve as the employer-of-last-resort. Jobs will be provided for all who want to work.

5. Socialism will largely be gained by the working class and it allies winning the battle for democracy in politics and civil society at large, especially taking down the structures and backward laws of class, gender and racial privilege. Some socialisms of the past used only limited formal democracy or simply used administrative means to implement goals, with the failure of both the goals and the overall projects. Americans are not interested in systems with elections where only one party runs and no one can lose.

6. The emerging society recovering from this crisis must be a society in much greater harmony with the natural environment. All economies are subsets of the eco-system and ignore it at their peril. In its economics, there are no such things as “externalities” to be pushed off downstream or to future generations. The nature of pending planetary disasters necessitates a high level of planning. We need to redesign communities, promote healthier foods, and rebuild sustainable agriculture – all on a global scale with high design, but on a human scale with mass participation of communities in diverse localities. Socialism will treasure and preserve the diversity of nature’s bounty and end the practice of genetic modification to control the human food supply. We need growth, but intelligent growth in quality and wider knowledge with a lighter environmental footprint. A socialism that simply reproduces the wasteful expansion of an earlier capitalism creates more problems than it solves. 7. Socialism values equality, and will be a society of far greater equality of opportunity, and far less economic inequality. In addition to equal rights before the law, all citizens and residents will have equitable access to a “universal toolbox” of paid-up free public education for all who want to learn, for as far as they want and are able to go; universal public pre-school care; a minimum income, as a social wage, for all who create value, whether in a workplace or otherwise; our notions of socially useful work, activity that creates value, has to be expanded beyond market definitions. Parents raising children, students learning skills, elders educating and passing traditions to younger generations – all these create value that society can in turn reward. Universal single-payer health care with retirement benefits at the level of a living wage is critical to start. Since everyone has access to employment, the existing welfare system can be abolished; individuals will be free to choose the career path and level of income targets they desire, or not. There are no handouts for those able to work, but there are also no irrational barriers to achievement.

8. Socialism is a society where religion can be freely practiced, or not, and no religion is given any special advantages over any other. Religious freedom remains a fundamental tenant of socialism, but naturally neither its practitioners nor anyone else can deny anyone the benefits and protection of civil and criminal law, especially to women and children.

9. Neither the economic nor political requirements of prosperous socialism require the continuation of imperial US prerogatives in foreign relations. This has a big impact on the Department of Defense – which will have to redefine its mission as, truly, Defense. The armed forces of society also include local police, under community control, as well as a greatly reduced prison system, based on the principle of restorative justice, and mainly for the protection of society from individuals inflicted with violent pathologies and criminal practices. Non-violent conflict resolution and community-based rehabilitation will be encouraged, but the need for some coercive means will remain for some time.