Socialism of the Future / Future of Socialism

Sameer Amin, a prominent ideologue of the Left and an active participant of the WSF forum, said that he was convinced along with everybody else present at the meeting that human kind needs socialism as the alternative to the system of capitalism. He said that this stood true when Rosa Luxembourg had said it a century ago and it still stands more than true today because capitalism is moving towards a dangerous age of senility. It has completely moved beyond the time when it played a relatively progressive historical role. Now, the destructive dimension of the process of capital expansion is far stronger than the positive or the constructive dimensions it possessed.

This could be exemplified in the fact that if society were to be opened to further capitalist expansion in the present circumstances as the WTO requests, through commodification of food production and commodification of land then three billion people, half of humankind would be destroyed. This is genocide and the powers that be are content that it be so because these three billion lives are useless for capitalist expansion as they lead lives of half human beings. This, according to Amin is the prospect of capitalist expansion.

According to him an alternative is definitely needed. But as the first wave of attempts by the Soviets and the Chinese have shown their limits, it is not easy. They have either broken down or are drifting toward something very different from what was first intended. Amin opined that that was a result of the fact that the changes had begun to take place from the periphery of the world system, from the backward countries and it will continue to be so. The polarization of wealth and power between the capitalist countries and the people of the underdeveloped and developing countries is deepening. He asserted that at such a juncture in world politics people of the SAARC cannot win until a socialist revolution bring a solution to their problems on a golden plate. Therefore, the contradiction that confronts progressive socialist forces is how to start building a different order and also develop productive forces and try to catch up, but being aware that catching up through the development of productive forces, should not eventually lead to the path of capitalist relations of production.

Amin said that it was the combination of those two contradictory elements that led to the Soviet experience and later, the Chinese experience. So much so that one had used to saying that a socialist was Soviet plus electricity but finally it was electricity alone and no more Soviets. A process of ‘catching up’ with that vision led to what things are today causing a discrediting of socialism. He said that socialists have to be more patient, for history is longer. Capitalism itself had started two or three centuries ago in Italian cities - Venice, Genoa and Florence, not in Britain, France and Netherlands. They had, in fact invested a lot but that did not lead to capitalism. The first wave failed and it is only the second wave, two or three centuries later, that matured and finally brought capitalism.

Socialism will also be created by humankind through a process of experimentation, sometimes meeting with success and sometimes with failure. Unsuccessful first experiments on create the possibility of a second experiment. So the lesson according to Amin is that the construction of another socialist society cannot be possible with half democracy, which, in some respects, may be better than none. A socialization through democracy is needed rather than a socialisation through Marx. He added that, it may be said that, the need for democracy is one of the aspects of the fact that capitalism is outdated, that further democratisation even of the democratic advanced capitalist society, needs socialism. The continuous development of capitalism, is not enforcing the democracy but leading to a crisis of democracy in the west itself, which is reflected, in the fact that there is no alternative.

In the end he came to the concept of the transition from global capitalism to global communism. He said that the criterion for socialism is finally taking into account fundamental values such as equality meaning not merely an equality of chances but real equality. The continuing conflicts in the criteria of capitalist management and in that of management of the society, (which is much more than economy) along with other criteria which will lead gradually in that transition of the human society, to transforms itself into another society, move towards another world, towards socialism, and being a Marxist and a Communist he affirmed -finally move towards communism. He maintained that even though conflicting with global capitalism is not easy if there is a possibility to move towards and attain a socialist society in one country may be China, in India or with Brazil, the battle should be waged.

The second issue of concern according to him was the identification of immediate tasks, for the coming years and perhaps may be decades. He referred to R. Geetha’s speech and said that society has to be rebuilt through the unity of the united front of the working class. Including those segments which are relatively organised or organisable and the huge masses of unorganised workers. And this according to Amin is a challenge that the working class has to take on and overcome. The other challenge for socialism according to him is the building or rebuilding of a citizen political culture, which is definitely not on the agenda of global capitalism.

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