SOCIALISM: WHAT IS IT?

SOCIALISM: WHAT IS IT?

Better to start with Theda Skocpol (TS), one of the most famous writers in US on Social Revolution.

Here the definition:

“Socialism is an association in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all ” (quoted by TS and taken from Marx “Communist Manifesto” 1848) and in which the STATE is transformed “from an organ dominating society into one completely subordinated to it” (same source).

This doesn’t mean that TS is a socialist Marxist and Leninist (perhaps only a socialist) though she start quoting Lenin: “Every Revolution is a matter of State Power”. The fact id that TS declare herself as anti-Leninist. She mention the limits of Lenin’ vision: “State power cannot be understood as an instrument of class domination (to Marxist the term ‘class’ refer the oppressed people by capitalist, that includes part of the middle classes) nor changes in state structure be explained in terms of class conflict. In France, RU and CH (cases under TS research) peasant-landlord conflict were the key factor in insurrections and Revolution.

To TS the nature of new regimes that emerge from REV conflicts depends fundamentally  upon 1- new structure of state organization; 2- on their partially autonomous & dynamic relation to domestic class and political conflicts as well as their position in relation to other big states abroad (p.284). We are seeing this now, especially the conflicts between Dem-versus -Reps

QT: Does the assumed limits of Lenin vision prevent the analysis of those factors? Or was instead Lenin the one who design the victory of 1917 Rev and the one who design del NEP (New Economic Policy) to facilitate the alliance between Capital and Labor as suggested by the young Marx year before de Manifesto Communist in 1848.

Regarding the “new structure of state organization” : A- The new structure in a capitalist state is also a social relation of production. It is a bourgeois relation of production, a relation of production of burgeois society. B- “The real limitation upon capital  production is capital itself. It is the fact that capital expansion depends on extending the conditions of human life for the benefit of all mass of producers. It doesn’t happen. The need for peaceful transition Depends on UN to demand Nuclear Dismantle worldwide, but producing weapons and wars is a huge business for few US Corporations.  TS suggest to find new type of reform and revolution with zero violence to start. That mad us to thing on the back to the Italian PARETO and his theory of EQUILIBRIUM now adopted by radical leftist like R Wolf & S Resnick : Economics: Marxian vs Neoclasics.  C- IF capitalism is a social relation of production then we have to restore a human wage labor relation. Then Capitalism will presuppose wage-labor, wage labor presupposes capital. They condition each other, each bring the other into existence.

It is highly unlikely that US modern State could disintegrate without destroying the society at the same time, said TS. The fact is that during the time of US wars abroad and resurrection of new pandemics, real human life make no sense to many, the whole US society has already start disintegrating itself (kid killing kids in schools + teachers). It will be worse with political conflict coming.