A review of the book
The
book Imagine Living in a Socialist USA immediately
caught my attention. I also wrote a
novel titled Looking Back From 2101 where
I imagined what a socialist world would look like. My novel
is a work of fiction where my characters look back from the perspective a
future socialist world and discuss how and why the political transformation
took place. The book Imagine is a work of non-fiction that is
divided into three parts. Several
authors wrote about what is wrong with the capitalist system, what a socialist
USA would look like, and how the transformation might take place.
James P. Cannon – What Socialist America Will Look Like
James
P. Cannon was a leader of the Socialist Workers Party in the United
States. Cannon understood the necessity
of differentiating the communist movement from the Stalinist betrayal of the
Russian Revolution. In this effort, the
members of the SWP became leaders of a 1934 teamsters strike in Minneapolis,
Minnesota that was a pioneering battle for the labor movement in this country.
Cannon
spoke about why he felt it was useful to imagine what a socialist world might
look like in a speech he gave titled What
Socialist America Will Look Like.
This speech as well as several others is published by Pathfinder Press
and included in Cannon’s book Speeches
for Socialism.
“The
new generation of youth who will come to our movement and dedicate their lives
to it will not be wiling to squander their young courage and idealism on little
things and little aims. They will be
governed by nothing less than the inspiration of a great ideal, the vision of a
new world.”
Cannon
understood the difficulty in imagining a socialist world because it would be
completely different from the one we live in today. In today’s world, we need to accomplish
numerous goals just to be able to have the basic means to live. We need to work long hours at one or more
jobs. We might study a so-called
advanced education in order to get one of the better paying jobs. We need to seek out a job that will give us
adequate health insurance as well as education for our family. We need transportation as well as a home and
maintenance of that home. These are just
some of the numerous expenses that we work endlessly to attain.
James
Cannon argued that in a socialist world, after a transition period, every
worker might receive all of her or his necessities by doing a job for one to
two years during the course of their lives.
This idea deserves repeating. In a
socialist world workers might only need to go to a job for one to two years
during their entire lives.
Cannon
argued that during its first days, a socialist government would work to do away
with all forms of discrimination.
However, he made special mention of the discrimination against
women. In today’s world, women not only
receive a lower salary than men, in most cases, they need to hold down a job,
shop for groceries, prepare meals, clean the home, and care for the
children. Cannon argued that in its
first days a socialist government would work to give women more leisure time.
Cannon’s
point of view appears to be so inconceivable, given the present reality, that
we might understand why critics of socialism label it utopian. However, Cannon correctly understood that the
material resources have existed for quite a long time to make the idea of
socialism a reality. The only real
obstacle to making this a world where human needs are more important than
profits is the fact that the political movements of the past have not achieved
this goal.
The book: Imagine Living in a Socialist USA
So,
from this perspective, we can now look at the book Imagine Living in a Socialist USA.
Clearly this book outlines many of the faults of capitalism. The discrimination against women, Blacks, and
immigrants as well as the destruction of the environment are just of few of the
problems the book outlines.
At
this point we might look at a quotation by Karl Marx who is quoted extensively
in the book Imagine. This is the first sentence in Marx’s
analysis of capitalism titled Capitol.
“The
wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails,
presents itself as an immense accumulation of commodities.”
Why
is this sentence so significant? This sentence
means that the wealth of capitalist society comes from “an immense accumulation
of commodities.” In other words, wealth
doesn’t directly come from money. Money
is only a means of exchange used to purchase the things that have value,
commodities. While capitalists have vast
amounts of money, workers are the ones who produce all the commodities that
represent all wealth in the capitalist world.
Michael
Steven Smith wrote a chapter of the book Imagine
titled Law in a Socialist USA. In this chapter Smith argues that the legal
system of capitalism came from the feudal regimes of kings and queens. Capitalism replaced those regimes with
corporations of mass production industries.
The legal system of capitalism has always been about rationalizing the
theft of wealth from the working people who create all wealth.
Dianne
Feeley wrote another chapter in this book titled The Capitalist Road: From
Chinese Sweatshops to Detroit’s Decay. Dianne
Feeley and I both worked in the auto industry.
For many years the auto industry was the primary industry in the United
States. Much of the investment capitol
in this country was initially derived from autoworkers that produced millions
of automobiles. Understanding these
facts, we might conclude that in a rational world autoworkers would be given
the respect that we deserve.
However,
today the city of Detroit that was once the center of auto production is now
bankrupt. Dianne Feeley wrote about Kevin
Orr, a bankruptcy lawyer who was assigned the task of dealing with Detroit’s
manufactured financial problems. This is
what Orr has to say about the Detroit autoworkers that created much of the
wealth in this country: “for a long time the city was dumb, lazy, happy, and
rich.” Clearly, Mr. Orr never worked in
an auto factory where the bosses demand increased production every second of
the workday. No, Mr. Orr has made a
career of living off of the wealth created by working people.
This
statement by Mr. Orr reflects the total bankruptcy of the political system
known as capitalism. We might also see
how Orr’s statement also demonstrates the extreme limitations of the
educational system in this country. The
idea that working people create all wealth needs to be taught to students in
elementary school. The fact that Mr. Orr
never came to grips with these basic facts means that he has chosen to live a
life of self imposed stupidity.
Are we the 99%?
This
brings us to the two basic limitations of the book Imagine. All or most of the
writers of this book agree with the political agenda of the so-called Occupy
movement. Occupy argued that one percent
of the population controls much of the wealth in this country. The book Imagine
argued that only about 50,000 people are the ones who have controlling
interests in the major corporations.
Occupy argues that they represent the 99% of the population that doesn’t
have this immense wealth.
Clearly,
Occupy is correct in arguing that only a tiny percentage of the population owns
the immense wealth of this country. The
problem is that working people rarely, if ever, come in direct contact with
this tiny minority. Understanding this,
if our problems were merely a matter of the one percent versus the ninety-nine
percent, these problems would be easier to deal with.
If
working people feel that the distribution of wealth is unfair, we could have a
vote and that relationship would change.
If working people feel that human needs are more important than profits
for a tiny minority, we could have another vote and that would change. Clearly this isn’t happening because of
something the Occupy movement hasn’t looked at.
Today,
there are tens of millions of people who have dedicated themselves to advancing
the capitalist system who are not a part of the most affluent one percent. These people would include: politicians,
managers, editors of the pro-capitalist news media, corporate lawyers, judges,
the police, as well as the officers in the military. While workers rarely have contact with the
most affluent one percent, we routinely come in contact with these
representatives of the super-rich.
Understanding
this reality, we begin to see why Karl Marx saw the working class as having the
potential to liberate humanity. This is
an idea that many people have difficulty in visualizing. We are talking about the workers who toil to
manufacture and distribute all commodities.
We are talking about autoworkers, garment workers, farm workers,
refinery workers, miners, as well as truck drivers and many more. Since these are the workers who bear the
brunt of the capitalist system, these are the people who will be most open for
a change.
However,
the facts are that unionization in this country has been on the decline for several
years. This state of affairs doesn’t
change the fact that there have been moments of history where the masses of
workers have mobilized and prepared to do what was necessary to make a change.
In
fact, the United States was born as a result of a political revolution. Another revolution took place during the
Civil War where slave owners lost their political power in this country. Other revolutions or rebellions took place in
the labor movement, the civil rights movement, and the movement against the U.S.
war against Vietnam. What makes us feel
that another revolution will erupt in this country?
The Achilles Heal of capitalism – The decline in the rate of profit
Oftentimes
we will listen to the television or read the newspapers reporting on stories
about how well corporations are doing.
These stories might report that sales and profits are up and the economy
is improving. The problem with these
stories is that they only report on a part of what is going on.
The
facts are that a constant feature of capitalism is that the percentage of
profit on investment tends to decline.
How do capitalists deal with this decline in the rate of profits?
They
have created investment schemes called derivatives
that are bets on how the market will perform. Today these derivatives are
valued at hundreds of trillions of
dollars.
They
also need to sell more and more
commodities. Then, they need to demand that workers become more
productive. Then, they use several
methods where they lower their production costs.
The
have moved factories overseas where the wages of workers are less. They raise prices higher than wage increases
which, in effect, cuts the buying power of workers wages. They have also eliminated hundreds of
millions of jobs and replaced them with lower paying jobs. They do this while all politicians argue that
they are working to create more jobs.
However,
in the year 2008 the rubber met the road.
The book Imagine argued that
the 2008 financial meltdown happened because the real estate market collapsed. This was only the straw that broke the
camel’s back of the capitalist economy.
Banks
had invested more heavily in real estate because the decline in the rate of
profits effected their investments in other enterprises. In the past banks invested heavily in
manufacturing enterprises in this country.
Many of those factories left and set up shop where wages were lower.
All
of this meant that the banks were poised to shut their doors because their
investments no longer had value. The
only reason why these banks didn’t shut down was because of a massive government
bailout plan that amounted to trillions of dollars.
For
a moment we need to step back and understand that this crisis did not happen
because of a natural disaster. No, human
beings created this crisis and human beings can resolve it.
The
government bailout is only a temporary fix to this problem, and sooner or later
the banks will have no choice but to shut their doors. Clearly working people will not sit back
while we loose our basic ability to make a living. This gives us an idea of why a political
revolution is possible in this country.
What is surplus value?
I believe
that is important to keep in mind that while the percent of profit on
investments declines, the overall amount of surplus workers produce continually
increases. My opinion is that there are
about eight goods and services that working people need and want. These world include: food, clothing, housing,
education, health care, transportation, communication, and exposure to cultural
activities such as music, dance, film, art, the theater, etc.
When
we look at the architecture of the cities of this country we see a collection
of skyscrapers. Most of these
skyscrapers house enterprises that in no way contribute to the production of
the goods and services we need and want. These enterprises include, corporate
headquarters, banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies, corporate law
firms, and stock brokerage houses. While
these enterprises do not directly contribute to the supplying us with the
things we want, when we pay for any commodity the costs of all these
enterprises is factored into the prices we pay.
Understanding
this reality gives us a clue as to why a profound improvement in the standard
of living is possible when working people gain control of the means of
production.
The necessity of a vanguard party
One
chapter in the book Imagine is titled
Alternatives to the Present System of
Capitalist Injustice written by Mumia Abu Jamal and Angela Davis. These authors quoted a 1971 study by the
American Friends Service Committee.
This
report argues that it is the government that commits the majority of murders in
its wars or by the police. The report
also looked at the fact that the government effectively kidnapped over 100,000
Japanese in internment camps during the Second World War. The largest forceful acquisitions of property
in the history of this country were when the government effectively stole large
tracts of Native American land through treaties.
Vladimir
Illyich Lenin wrote about these kinds of criminal acts in his pamphlet titled State and Revolution. Lenin argued that the idea of the state was specifically invented to serve
the capitalist system. The state, in
effect, organizes the theft of wealth created by working people and hands it
over to the capitalist class. This is
why Lenin called the state a “special repressive force.”
Understanding
this reality of capitalism Lenin felt that the only way for workers to gain
political power would be with a vanguard party.
This party would need to be disciplined, and always advance the
interests of the international working class.
History has shown that the only examples where working people managed to
take power was with the existence of a vanguard party. These examples consist of the Soviet Union
before the betrayal of Joseph Stalin and the revolutionary government of Cuba.
While
the book Imagine devotes an entire
section on how there will be a transition to socialism, the book never mentions
the name Vladimir Illyich Lenin. The
book argues that there could be many different ways that working people might
come to power. Unfortunately history has
shown that this approach has not been successful.
Thanksgiving 2077?
Terry
Bisson wrote a chapter in the book Imagine
titled: Thanksgiving 2077: A Short
Story. In this chapter Bisson uses
fiction to imagine what a Socialist world might look like. His characters don’t seem to be very happy
and Bisson’s characters have a rule at the Thanksgiving table that there would
be no complaining.
The
idea of alienation comes from the theft of wealth from workers. In a world that will be built on new
foundations this theft will no longer exist.
My opinion is that a future socialist world would be a genuinely
inspiring place to live. Working people
would not only produce everything of value, but we would have complete control
of the environment where we live.
Given
the present reality, I believe that working people will have the opportunity to
take state power and to transform the world as we know it. However, we need to learn the lessons of
history that will give us insight as to how the struggle will unfold. There is no better way to live one’s life
that to work to make this kind of world a reality.