CAPITALISM AND COMMUNISM
 Communism is not a program one puts into practice or makes others put into practice, but a social movement. Those who develop and defend theoretical communism do not have any advantages over others except a clearer understanding and a more rigorous expression; like all others who are not especially concerned by theory, they feel the practical need for communism. They have no privilege whatsoever; they do not carry the knowledge that will set the revolution in motion; but, on the other hand, they have no fear of becoming "leaders" by explaining their positions. The communist revolution, like every other revolution, is the product of real needs and living conditions. The problem is to shed light on an existing historical movement. Communism is not an ideal to be realised : it already exists, not as a society, but as an effort, a task to prepare for. It is the movement which tries to abolish the conditions of life determined by wage-labour, and it will abolish them by revolution. The discussion of communism is not academic. It is not a debate about what will be done tomorrow. It is an integral part of a whole series of immediate and distant tasks, among which discussion is only one aspect, an attempt to achieve theoretical understanding. Inversely, the tasks can be carried out more easily and efficiently if one can answer the question : where are we going ? Explaining what communism is does not mean refuting other "revolutionaries" ( the official C.P.s, the extreme left, the various brands of socialists, etc. ). In this matter one cannot take them seriously. For instance, the C.P.s have no program; they are just a form -- among others -- of the program of capital, supporting all the essential features of the present world, including wage-labour. It is much more to the point to expose their function than to try to challenge their arguments one by one. We will not try to oppose "wrong" views with "right" views. Organising a debate with a C.P. on its "conception of socialism" would mean, once more, treating the C.P. as a degenerated member, yet still a member, of the revolutionary family. In countries where there are strong C.P.s ( Italy, France ), the extreme left ( gauchistes ) keeps attacking the C.P., without ever exposing its function, its plainly counter-revolutionary role as one of the best supporters of capital. The point is not that the C.P.'s program is not communist, but that it is capitalist. The explanations in this text do not originate in a desire to explain. They would not exist in this form, and a number of people would not have gathered to elaborate and publish them, if the contradictions and the practical social struggles which tear contemporary society apart did not show the new society taking form in the womb of the old, forcing people to be conscious of it. |