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Socialism and Marxism in 21st Century America

Alek Blain


We still live very much in the shadow of our forebearers. Not 200 years ago our nation was created amidst the first clippings of a worldwide capitalist revolution. This revolution spared no part of the globe and reached its bloated fingers to every corner, nook and cranny, and to every people in existence. This revolution created a world-wide culture of unbridled exploitation of the Earth and of the producers of society, nationally and internationally; the laborers. With Adam Smith's first trappings and analysis of the commodity, with the first theories of value, with the first analysis of the man-made machine known only as the market, the gears of capitalism began turning and gained their bearings and set about spreading to every aspect of life.

Capitalism brought with it a developmental boom never before thought possible. The armies of the modern industrial army would dwarf the armies of any Caesar, the explorations of space would frighten any Viking, and the interconnectivity of our world would destroy the continuity of the Roman Senate. Yet, Capitalism brought with it a plethora of unspeakable horrors including massive world-wide wars, continual economic sabotage, forced starvation, disease, and ignorance, and random depressions and recessions due only to the anarchy of production, with, at current date, allowing over half of the world to live in poverty while an extremely small minority lives in absolute divine opulence and total freedom: above national and international law. Not to mention allowing the deaths of countless millions, at the current date, due to easily preventable diseases and starvation, or the larger problems of our time such as aids and war. While hundreds of millions languish in slums around the world. Here are some statistics to feast on: Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day, Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names, Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn't happen, The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation (the US that is), 20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world’s goods, A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world’s poorest 2.5 billion people, According to UNICEF, 30,000 children die each day due to poverty, “Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to clean water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity.”, about 0.13% of the world’s population controlled 25% of the world’s assets in 2004. (http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp#fact1)

At first there were mere grumblings after the claws of capitalism had themselves fully wrapped around the globe. Then came a massive outbreak of anti-capitalism. These men and women were the Utopian Socialists. They did not realize that one couldn't simply will a society into existence, that the conditions of society must be analyzed scientifically and policies should be developed accordingly. Then came Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels the Scientific Socialists or communists. They said that capitalism would destroy itself out of its own contradictions. These being that the laborers who produced all of the goods were not entitled (nor did they consume) the majority of their produce. They also found that profit was not simply added to the price of a commodity but physically extracted from the worker, as the value of a worker is exactly that which allows him or her to continue coming to work and performing at his or her average pace, and a worker could produce many thousand times this value in a very short amount of time. It is physically impossible for the owner of capital and buyer of labor to pay the worker what he or she is worth because profit is their fund for consumption; that which allows them to exist. Capitalism also destroys itself by its most cherished law; supply and demand. Thus, the best workers (those who produce the most) are actually slowly killing themselves by over producing and causing a reduction of the value of their commodity, and in the worse case resulting in work closing, lock-outs, and other assorted maladies. It was also proved that capitalism forced companies to combine.

The capitalists of the world all espouse the idea of perfect competition or perfect liberty, in the market place for the bourgeois that is. This is impossible, as the generally anarchy of production, caused by various firms not knowing how much the other is planning to produce, cause general gluts in the market place thus destroying entire industries over night. They must therefore combine for mutual protection on a planned basis. At this point the clearest contradiction of capitalism comes up. The means of production are social, but the profits and commodities thus produced, belong to the stock holder. Yet, due to the ever centralizing tendencies of capitalism, the stock holders themselves must make their means of production ever more social, becoming totally planned monopolies, oligopolies, trusts, and finally in our time, international monopolies.

We see not only these contradictions, but those that are most clearly shown in our own constitution, which we are taught to write off as the prejudice of a time past. This is that, even though the capitalists of society espouse a policy of equality, they must force somebody to be unequal so as to debase the labor force more fully and allow for the lowest wages possible to be paid the most often. Citations of this would be women in the work force, blacks and their earnings, and other racially oppressed peoples including undocumented immigrants, and the forced inability of homosexuals to gain the benefit of marriage tax reductions and other economic benefits. We see children, brimming with potential, forced out of post-secondary education because of a lack of funds, forced into Mcjobs and other undignified and stupefying positions.

We also see that capitalism must spread and continiously expand to unexplored markets, whereby the imperialist powers of today utterly exploit those nations not strong enough to defend themselves against such onslaughts. We saw in Venezuela a people without land, as corporations owned them all, and yet used them for nothing, we see in many parts of Africa where German companies own the rights to massive tacts of lands in Western and sub-sahran Africa, which also happen to be many of the few sources of arable land, which thus result in downright gluts in the imperialist nation and vampire like life-drain in the victim's lands.
We saw also how capitalism destroyed all that was sacred to the feudal soicety before it. Religious zeal was now more or less a purchasable commodity. The family was turned into a contract. The purity of sexuality and womanhood was encouraged, in large portions, to resort to prostitution, or in modern times, physical defilement by way of pornography. It destroyed the pastoral life of independence enjoyed for generations of our ancestors. It replaced all human nature into the small field of personal greed and corruption, and turned our leaders, already businessmen, into purchasable commodities, thus destroying any semblance of democracy.

There were those who attempted to follow the communist line of thought, especially in the developing world, and failed, namely the United Soviet Socialist Republics. The reasons for this are manyfold. Firstly, the idea of communism was meant to occur in a world leading nation, not in a nation where there were hardly any means of production to take over into state management. Communists are also expected to use the best aspects of humanism and a dogged morality to function in society, and once the sense of this was lost in the Soviet Union almost immediately after the revolution of 1917, the product was a deformed and sickly entity prone to dictatorship. It likewise encouraged such deformities to take hold elsewhere, as they needed to justify their rule to the masses by saying that their method of dictatorship was proper for their liberation. It has been said that communism is failing in places like China, Vietnam, and Cuba, where political systems and the economy are being liberalized and capitalized, but this is simply a lie, as this is precisely what the classical literature of Marxism demands. Leon Trotsky even had his famed theory of permanent revolution, whereby, a communist country that is developing should resort wholly to market socialism. Marxism was also created around the concept of democratic centralism, not single party dictatorship. This was forgotten by the USSR and its spawnlings. It is clear what the problems are and were in these societies and what must be done to fix them, if they are still salvagable.

It is true indeed that Americans are proud of their political system and believe in that political system: A system of inalienable rights, a system of government based around a democratically elected executive and legislative branch, and a system of checks and balances in government. The communists of America would abhor to destroy these things. That must be part of our programme, and for the CPUSA, it is. This is known as "Bill of Rights Socialism". But I have stepped ahead too far. Just how is socialism to be built in the USA? Socialism has always been a movement that focused on broad-base support, not a single party. If socilaism is to be built in America, it won't be built by the CPUSA, but a great mass of millions upon millions; the exploited workers, women, gays and lesbians, immigrants, the youth movement, the peace movement, the elderly, the disabled, and other nationally oppressed peoples. There were illusions in the past that the communist party itself would lead this, this cannot occur in the United States, our movement must be simply massive, reaching out to all those who are oppressed by the current situation not just the working people of the USA. We must focus ourselves on ending the injustices of our society, expanding the rights of each individual, and increasing grass-roots democracy.

A disinformation campaign has been waged by the ultra-right to cover up this reality, and simply state that communists are dictators whose ideas are outdated; not to mention that we oppose religion. All of these things are untrue. We are not dictators, as Ernst Mandel said "Communists must everywhere be the champions of civil rights.", we must also be willing to accept the vote by the people and learn from our mistakes. The movement of today can learn just as much from Allende's Chile and the societies being built in Venezuela and Bolivia, as the Soviet Union, Vietnam, China, et al. Our ideas are clearly not outdated: more russians are growing to support communism again (the percent of the vote given to the CPRSF continues to rise), communism is being strengthened by the profound success of the economies of China and Venezuela. It is clear that even with these small examples that communism did not expire with the sickly Soviet Union. As for religion, we hold firmly to what our constitution states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof", in the Soviet Union's constitution this included the right to not practice religion and spread atheist propaganda, though this was almost entirely done by the state; I am just using this example to show that even the most sickly of communist regimes supports the free excersise of religion, contrary to what the ultra-right disinformation campaigns tell you.

I mentioned earlier that the communists in America seek to expand the individual rights of all people I will list these and explain a few where the situation merits. "or abridging the freedom of speech" we likewise would never do this, contrary to what the Soviet Union and its cohorts did; "or of the press", though we would aim at creating state owned television, newspapers, and other forms of broadcast companies, we would never abridge the right of an individual to use the press or to be published, and would not expropriate independent presses and broadcast companies. "the right of the people peaceably to assemble" we would expand this right by providing public areas of preordained size where people may assemble at any time without a permit, we would also expand this to include that every city must have a facility for public assembly which is provided with electricity and proper facilities. "and to petition the government for a redress of grievances" This too would be maintained and unpunishable.

"Well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." We too support this measure as the ultimate check and balance in a democratic system. "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." We too support this, and currently support the repeal of the ultra-right's acts that enable the government to infringe here. "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." We too support this, and specifically we oppose the death penalty in all cases, and shall not expropriate the expropriators of society; that is the bourgeois, without properly compensating them in the form of bonds or cash. We will also engage in rehabilitory prison practices rather than incarceration for punishment. The other rights listed in the USA's Bill of Rights, too are, and must be, maintained wholly by communists. We would also add several rights; the right to healthcare, education, a decent job, and food and other basic necessities. We would change the political set up of the courts to be fully independent of government appointment, and thereby elected.

It is clear also that socialism will not be established over night. While changing the political system to better suite the needs of democracy for all and grass roots democracy, we too must change the economy of society from capitalism to socialism. But we cannot simply have socialism over night as I said earlier, market mechanisms will exist for years, even decades, after the revolution maintaining a dual system until all production is held in the hands of all people, and all needs are provided for, the government fades from a governing body, to accountants, then to nothing. The process to socialism will also doubtfully be a clear, one shot road, concessions will have to be made, back-steps will need to be taken to ensure the well-being of society. And we too must deal with the fact that, should the electorate become displeased with our policies, we will be voted out of office. A policy of left unity should be maintained, though we should voice our opinions and point out our differences openly.

Communists would bring about a society where the free development of all becomes the means for the free development of all. Where the means of production are held in common; where democracy is free from the corrupting hand of money and gifts. A society were nature is protected and balanced with the need for economic growth. A society where the people are protected by their Bill of Rights and free elections whose officials are subject to recall at any time. A society without the need for war, aggressive foreign policy, exploitation, violent excess, and titanic defense budgets. A society free from depression, hunger, and joblessness. With these goals and strategies in mind, we will open a discussion on socialism in meeting halls, in unions, at the workplace, and all places of communication, bringing socialism into the mainstream.

Great piece of literature, Comrade! biggrin
Too bad the "majority" of "good Americans" won't accept Socialism, though sad
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