Socialism From Below

A Clear Portrayal of Marxist Theory

From Our Distorted Visions

Joel Lewis

April 22, 1998

Introduction:

The historical evolution of human society has been marked by a struggle for freedom from exploitation and misery. This struggle transcends diversity in cultures and time periods to tell the great tale of the "master and servant." From the multitudes of Jewish slaves in Egypt to the Vietnamese workers in NIKE sweatshops, history shows the common theme of groups and individuals suffering from exploitation from a social, economic, or political elite.

During the 1800's an ideology was born out of the exploitation of workers inherint within the new industrial period. This new ideology was termed as "Socialism" by a publication in England in 1827.⁽¹⁾ The new socialist concept was presented as a liberator for the workers suffering under capitalism's economic, social, and political structures. Socialist theory and ideology emerged from a dialectical process involving the concept of capitalist appropriation and worker exploitation that arose out of the Industrial Revolution blending with the ideals of democratic revolution in France. The Industrial Revolution brought a new mode of production through large scale industrial factories. This change in the mode of industrial production had wide scale affects on society and its members. The democratic revolution of France in the late 1700's brought the concept of the unified masses working together to ensure liberty and equality.

The Socialist idea began as an elitist theory that believed in an upper class or bourgeoisie taking care of the poor and working class in society. This elitist tendency was portrayed through French Socialist writers who were referred to as "Utopian Socialists." George Lichtheim, a historian of Socialism, stated that: "French socialism, at the start, was the work of men who had not thought of overturning society, but wished to reform it, by enlightened legislation if possible."⁽²⁾ This type of Socialism was termed "Socialism from Above".

A revolutionary concept of the working class being proposed during the 1800's was the theory of anarchism. The Anarchists stood in opposition to the Capitalist system and proposed a revolutionary model of collectivism. The anarchists believed that the capitalist system was directly linked with the state as the mechanism that allows a minority to rule. The state defends it's monopoly on power by using tactics of force to protect against challenges from below. The anarchists defended Marx's analysis of capitalism and also advocated the violent overthrow of the capitalist system by the exploited working class. Bakunin, a great intellectual of the anarchist movement criticized Marx's concept of the "dictatorship of the proletariat." In 1873 Bakunin wrote in "State and Anarchism"that: "The new social order (of Marx) should not be organized by the free association of peoples' organizations or unions, local and regional, from the bottom up in accordance with the demands and instincts of the people, but by the dictatorial power of the learned minority which presumes to express the will of the people."⁽³⁾

During the 1840's a new breed of socialists was born out of the concept of mobilizing the exploited masses for radical social change. Out of this new breed of socialists Karl Marx emerged as the leading theorist of the concept of "Socialism from Below". Marx viewed the new socialist movement as a democratic force of the exploited masses of workers. Marx laid out an elaborate critique of Capitalist systems and its role in a Hegelian historical dialectical process of evolution. Out of this critique Marx presented a new socialist concept of "Socialism from Below" characterized by the creation of class-consciousness, a world worker's revolution, and the creation of a new socialist state ruled by a Dictatorship of the Proletariat

Class Conflict:

The history of human society is based in evolutionary changes in economic structures. Economic structures of a society change when there are changes in technology and the means of production. With each economic structure there are certain rules and laws that the system abides by. The earliest forms of economic structures were based in a primitive communal form. From this early form new forms emerged through slavery and its successor serfdom. The commercial development of cities and technological changes of the industrial revolution brought a new system of economic production called capitalism. These historical economic systems had produced clear and distinct economic relations in their crude forms.⁽⁴⁾ The new economic formations of capitalism unified the cities, villages, provinces, and nations of the world in a new division of labor based on relations between the capitalist and proletariat.

The economic structures of capitalism lead to a natural antagonism between the proletariat and the capitalist. Under the new capitalist structure the labor of the worker was purchased as a commodity by the capitalist. The process of purchasing labor through wages involves the appropriation of the worker's product and the accumulation of the surplus value created by selling the commodity. The product created by the worker contains a certain value as a commodity on the market. By appropriating ownership of the product the capitalist compensates the worker with a small portion of the product's value and maintains the larger portion of the surplus value. The wages paid to the worker by the capitalist is through a minimum wage. This minimum wage is set by the economic standards necessary for the worker to survive and to reproduce in order to manufacture a continuous supply of labor commodities.⁽⁶⁾ The process of appropriation through wage labor results in the worker feeling alienated from his productive activity, his product, other men, and the rest of the species.⁽⁷⁾ Alienation of the worker shows the true nature of inequality caused by the exploitation within capitalism.

The root of the class struggle inherit in capitalism lies in the struggle for surplus product⁽⁸⁾. The worker is granted the necessary-product portion of his labor in order to provide for his own existence. The portion of value created by his labor power which is left to the capitalist is known as the surplus-product. Marx believed that the owner of the surplus-product was the true master in society because the wealth would allow them power over the state, church, courts, sciences, and arts. The conflict between the proletariat and capitalist for control of the surplus-product exhibits the true nature of the class struggle for power.

The transition to the new socialist state from capitalism requires a violent revolution of the masses to overthrow the old bourgeois order.⁽⁹⁾ The driving force for socialism in society is a revolutionary unified working class. This unified working class is led on the revolutionary path of socialism by the communist party. The communist party differs from the other working class parties by advocating: 1) The struggles of all proletarians independent of their nationality. 2) As the movement moves through different phases the communists still represent the interests of the movement as a whole.⁽¹⁰⁾

In order to crush capitalism, the bourgeoisie, and bring the historical transition to socialism the communists advocated the concept of a dictatorship of the proletariat. Marx stated that:

Between capitalist and Communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the former into the later. To this there also corresponds a political transition period, in which the state can be no other than the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.⁽¹¹⁾

The dictatorship of the proletariat was a necessary part of the first phase of evolution referred to as socialism. The dictatorship would ensure the crushing of all bourgeois elements that stood in opposition of the historical quest of the workers. This regime would represent a democracy for the workers and the poor and would no longer be dominated by the elitist structures of capitalist democracies.

The New Socialist State

The first phase of Communism is referred to as Socialism. The new socialist state is born

out of the existing structures of the capitalist state with the dictatorship of the proletariat serving as the ruling vanguard of the working class. The new state exists merely to initiate the new socialist society.

The first step in implementing socialism is the seizure of all private property under state ownership. The main property put under state control are the factories and other means of production. By controlling the instruments of production the state is able to gain full control of industries' surplus product. By controlling the surplus product in the name of the workers the state is able to remove the economic power of the bourgeoisie. As the new owner of industry the state acts as the new employer for workers of the nation. This new economic relationship is based in ending capitalism's exploitation of man by another man.

Marx argued that the Democratic struggle was simply a "illusory form in which the real struggles if the different classes are fought out among one another."⁽¹²⁾ The process of Political Democracy is simply a farce in which the bourgeoisie provide the illusion of freedom and equality to the masses. By controlling the surplus-product the capitalist is able to control and manipulate the state for his own private interests. The existence of a democratic political system within a capitalist nation is simply a tool to manipulate the masses and to deter class consciousness. The Capitalist Democracy simply allows the masses to elect new elites every few years to serve as the new exploiters in Parliament.⁽¹³⁾ The Socialist system provides for true freedom and equality for people by promoting a system of Social Democracy. The Proletariat Dictatorship represents the true essence of the people's struggles and desires. By removing the old bourgeois order and seizing private property for public consumption the Communist party is able to provide equal control of the surplus-product for all of society. Control of the surplus-product for the masses also initiates the control of the state and their own lives providing a genuine atmosphere of Democracy.

The new Socialist state is established in the idea of replacing the bourgeois concepts of economic individualism with the values of finding true freedom through cooperation. The state promotes these new socialist values by initiating programs of planned utilization of resources for the common good.⁽¹⁴⁾ These programs for the public good aim at the emancipation of the individual from the suffering and degradation they experienced under capitalism.

Socialism exists to serve the people through the state. The socialist ideal is committed to allowing the true development of the individual. Under the socialist system the individual is the end and the communal society is the means. The communist manifesto described the socialist system as "an association in which the free development of each is the condition of the free development of all."

The Socialist system helps to create a society which is populated by the newly constructed socialist man. Under this new system Marx stated that man is "re-created in the whole richness of his nature and enjoys the unrestricted development and exercise of his physical and spiritual faculties."⁽¹⁵⁾ Once the populations of the socialist state internalize these values and are "reborn" as full members of the commune the state is no longer a necessary part of the nation. When this phase of individual's development within the society is complete it becomes possible and necessary to progress to the higher form of Communism with the "withering away of the state".

The "Higher Phase" of Communism is the next evolutionary step from the Socialist system. Just as the socialist system is born as the synthesis of the Capitalist clashing with the Proletariat, the communist system is born out of the evolutionary process of Socialism adapting to a new classless society. Marx predicted that the historical evolutionary process would remove capitalism from existence as the last system of exploitation⁽¹⁶⁾ The transformation from the Socialist system to Communism represents the final evolutionary destruction of the old Capitalist order.

The Socialist society removes all class distinctions from people and brings an end to the exploitation of the masses by a minority elite. Within this new structure the removal of class distinctions also brings an end to the historic class conflicts between the master and the servant. During the first phase of socialism the state acts as the instrument to violently remove the capitalist exploiters and oppressors from the nation. Once the capitalist is removed from society and people are reborn in the communal spirit the state loses its necessity to exist. Within this new classless society the state begins a process of "withering away" because there is no longer a exploiting class that exists to repress.

The higher phase of Communist society exists under the motto of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs!" This concept functions once there is a break from the division of labor, the abolition of the antithesis between mental and physical labor, and when labor is transformed into "life's primary want."⁽¹⁷⁾ The transformation into the higher phase would allow productive forces to develop to their maximum extent. Citizens of the communist nation will be accustomed to following certain fundamental rules of social interaction and will voluntarily work according to their abilities in order to provide for the needs of the community. Under the higher phase workers will be treated with equality in both pay and the amount of labor that they must perform. Growth into Communism will allow people true freedom and control over their own lives, the ability to develop their own natural skills and talents, and the opportunity to add to the improvement of the whole collective society.