What is Future of Socialism?

-K.S.Chalam
The notion of socialism entered India through the English educated. Some of them were trained by the Fabian socialists and utilitarians in the liberal universities of Great Britain. As students of economic systems, we studied socialism and communism along with capitalism as three distinct forms of economic organization. We learnt that C E M Joad , a prominent socialist said that socialism is like a hat that has lost its shape because everybody wears it . In fact, the riddle was addressed by the pioneers of communism, Marx and Engels as there were Fabian socialists, Feudal socialists, Petty-bourgeoisie socialists etc. They have made a distinction between socialism advocated by Fourier, Owen and Sismondi and their own version of scientific socialism and explained the concepts both in the Manifesto and by Engels in his Socialism: Utopian and scientific in 1880. Most of the analysts appear to speak about the pre-communist phase of socialism that was prevalent in the 20th century Europe and in some developing countries. In fact, socialism became a universal value during the last century as no one had openly opposed it except a few who wanted the autonomy and liberty of the individual to prevail as a value of an open society. Even a fascist like Hitler advocated his own brand of National Socialism in the European context. There are people in USA who are critical about Barack Obamas policies as socialist. However, those who defend equality of outcome as well as equality of opportunity are put together with socialists advocating that the means of production should be socially owned, as one class .The communists are those who wanted the abolition of private property through a political process. Interestingly, the collapse of Soviet Union and Chinas experiments with market socialism are considered as deviations and there are very few who are willing to discuss about the epoch in academic circles now. Thus, socialism as an economic system is considered by many as a panacea to meet the challenges of inequality, poverty and social development. Depending upon the stage of development of the economy and the society or simply the productive forces, each country has designed its own breed of socialism. Consequently, we have the Nordic countries calling themselves as socialist, some European nations like France, Italy etc proclaiming as social democracies and third world countries like India owning tag as democratic socialist (in preamble to the Constitution). All of these countries have not abandoned market as an instrument of economic transactions nor declared war against capitalism. In some of the Latin America countries particularly Chavezs Venezuela, it is reported that the workers (including retired) seem to have participated voluntarily in work with patriotic fervor during a sabotage to cause damage to the economy. They felt that they are the owners of the state owned company PDSVA as Article 62 of constitution says that,

the participation of the people in forming, carrying out and controlling the management of public affairs .. It is the obligation of the state and the duty of society to facilitate the creation of the conditions most favorable to putting this in to practice. We have similar provisions in the constitution under Articles 42, 43 and 43a. The advocates of socialism had anxiety about the future of socialism even during the early part of 20th century. There was lively debate in the UK Labor party after Anthony Crosland published his document on Future of socialism in 1956 and its reissue in 2006. We have seen in India debates about the future of socialism and scientific socialism (communism) by different groups of activists, scholars and public men voicing their concerns about the disappearance of the culture of socialism particularly in the recent years. It is increasingly found that the economic programmes of the social democrats followed in Europe are accepted as socialist in nature without realizing the fact that they did not solve the problems of capitalism. It is yet to be seen to what extent China has addressed the issues of poverty, inequality, environmental degradation, corruption etc through the political control of the state. In its party congress a few years ago, China reaffirmed its faith in democracy and added a new concept scientific development. The use of the term development rather than socialism is a radical departure from the original ideological position. The concept was elaborated as an approach that takes care of inequality, environmental sustainability etc, and not equality of opportunity and a firm commitment to resolve contradictions of private capital. This is a clear message that they are going to join the club of social democrats if they have already not attached to one. The role played by political parties in the social democracies or democratic socialist countries or in the so called communist countries need to be evaluated in the context of the change in the composition of the working class, the hegemony of the MNCs, WTO to oversee the arrangements, the strength and enormous influence of the mass media in carrying the propaganda of MNCs etc. Most of the parties whose agenda is socialism are participating in elections. According to Marta Harnecker, a Latin American activist scholar that the left parties have electoral deviations in 4 areas. 1. The tendency of getting elected as an end in itself rather than a means to work on a project of social transformation, 2. Linking up with popular movements only during elections and for electoral reasons 3. Individualism during the campaign, seeking funds and support for themselves and for the party, and 4. Internal conflicts over the elections as if the other members of the party were their main enemies. As a student of Althusser, she had reflected on the new political movements and pointed out their limitations. She has noted that many of these theoretical debates resulted in splits because they divided the various forces even more. In this context, the position of the socialist(left) parties including the centrist party like Congress whose declared agenda is identical( socialism) in India present an impression that they are in the same league.

The socialist and market economies seem to have exhausted their capabilities to solve problems of common people as the current situation unfolds. There is no doubt that reducing inequalities without affecting the sustainability of environment is possible through socialism and the culture of give-and-take. But, convincing the others about the need to share appears to be a philosophical approach to life or world view. This is a civilization problem that the present generation encounters. The divided socialist and left groups seem to have not realized this. As such, the future of socialism hangs in balance between the fortitude of the human attitude of sharing and brutal disposition of acquisition. The sooner our leaders realize this dichotomy, the better for the mankind.