Stuart Bramhall continues his series about capitalism and socialism
In general, Marxists believe the economic laws that govern capitalism make it inherently flawed – dooming it to eventual failure. They also see a grave risk that the collapse of capitalism will bring down civilization with it. Which is why they argue for workers to hasten its demise and prepare to replace it with some other form of social organization.
Yes, capitalism has been wobbling lately. But what many socialists (and anarchists) don’t get is that capitalism can and well reinvent itself overnight, if need be. “Socialists have predicted eleven out of the last seven capitalist crises” yet somehow capitalism keeps one.
Also, in an era where the state is demonstrably hollowing out, how can a monolithic state enterprise somehow revive itself then run things so as to benefit workers?
I think the socialist model made sense 100 years ago. I’m not sure it does in 2010.
The state is only being hollowed out when it comes to meeting the needs of the working class… It has and still works very well for the ruling class… And that is what the state is intended for under capitalism… Marx wrote about that over 100 years ago…
“The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.” From the Communist Manifesto
http://marxists.catbull.com/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch01.htm
The only way the state can serve the needs of working people is under democratic socialism… In which the working class make the decisions of how things will be run… But until then the state is run by and for the capitalist..ie the ruling class… and they are making sure that it serves very little of our needs, unless it is forced to…
But how do we prevent democratic socialism from morphing into rule by authoritarian buttheads? The past history of socialism isn’t exactly inspiring here.
It can’t so long as power rests with the State. But devolve power to communities, and not only does the state cease to be a tool of the elite, but many of the issues “left” and “right” currently bicker over (the smokescreen behind which the elites do their dirty work) become irrelevant because they are decided locally, not nationally.