What is Socialism?
There is a new force out once again. The force of socialism. People around the world are beginning to rediscover the ideology of workers liberation once again. Capitalism is proving itself to be unbearable through constant economic meltdown and the ecological crisis at hand. I wish to write this essay as an attempt to try and explain socialism in a way that’s readable, relatively short, but also detailed. The next time your drunk uncle says that the democrats are socialists or whatever, show them this.
Philosophy of socialism
Socialism, first and foremost, is a pining to do better than capitalism. It emerged in the early 19th century as an anti-capitalist movement in response to the horrendous inequality and conditions produced by early industrial capitalism. Henri St. Simon was the first major socialist (not Karl Marx) alongside Charles Fourier and Robert Owens. They were inspired by the ideas of the enlightenment to conclude that capitalism has not reached the preached ideas of liberty, fraternity, and equality. Which the leaders of the French Revolution were so fervent about.
Many different people over the years have been inspired by the three men to expand on what the idea of socialism means. There have been many different ideas over the years and its definition has been contested by many different branches. Socialism is a lot like Christianity where it has different many different branches and sects to how the idea of liberty, fraternity, equality should be achieved. But one idea clearly transcends all, that is socialism is the idea of liberation for the working class. Or more importantly, it is anti-capitalism.
Socialism, according to the oxford languages dictionary, is a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole [2]. As to what this means, there have been many ideas of what that should be as the tree above shows. This can be something like a worker cooperative, municipally owned grocery store, or even a nationally owned oil rig. But the idea of socialism is usually alluding to some form of democratic ownership of the means of production.
Let’s now talk about what socialism is in better depth. As I understand it.
Socialist economics
There are different types of socialist economic systems. There is “market socialism” which advocates for a socialist system of worker ownership but has the functions of the market within. Think about worker cooperatives. There are many different theories to market socialism such as “mutualism” or “Ricardian Socialism”. A form of market socialism took place in Yugoslavia which combined the Marxist-Leininist type of government with workers’ self-management.
There is also “planned economics” which advocates for the distribution of goods and services based on an economic plan. This can be in a centralized or decentralized manner. A form of centralized planning took place in the Soviet Union and its satellites. Also known as “Marxist-Leninism”. A form of decentralized economic planning took place in Anarchist Catalonia. Also known as “Anarcho-syndicalism”.
There is no set way in doing socialist economics and many of them will often overlap with one another. The whole public vs private thing is a sort of debate within socialism. Should certain sectors of the economy be planned? Or remain with market forces but in the way of worker cooperatives? Personally, I’m a sort of centrist between the two. I believe resource extraction needs to be planned but have some stuff remain towards market-like forces such as entertainment.
Triangle of socialism
Socialism wishes to achieve a society based on social ownership of production, distribution, and organization. All in a triangle:
The “Triangle of socialism” was a concept developed by Hugo Chavez [3]. While I personally reject Chavez as a leader (I might do an essay of analysis of Venezuela), I find this definition of socialism to be the best in describing socialism in its ideals. Let’s go over each part.
1. Production: This describes socialism as the means of production being owned socially. As explained above, this can mean many different things and how they should be organized. But the core of this idea is that the means of production such as the factory, farmlands, warehouses, stores, etc. are all owned by the community as a whole. This can also be known as “usufruct”.
2. Distribution: This means that the needs of the people and the community are met by said organization of production. Are people getting the same access to food, clothing, shelter, etc.? Also, are people getting the adequate necessities of life? A broader concept of this is called “positive freedom”.
3. Organization: This is the core idea of socialism as to what liberty of the working class means. It describes the means of production being democratically organized by the workers who work said enterprises. One person, one vote. This is also known as “workers’ self-management”. For this reason, socialism is often called “worker ownership” of the means of production.
Each part of the triangle interacts with and reinforces each other. If the workers own the means of production, they can make decisions based on the needs of their own communities. It would likely foster a system of cooperative behaviors and mutual beneficiary behavior. If people are rewarded based on cooperation and compassion, rather than greed and avarice, the rewards of establishing such mutual relations will compound into better communal and individual abilities. That isn’t to say that greed and avarice won’t continue to exist, but the best way to combat said behaviors is through democracy. Socialism is the best way to carry out economic exchange because people should have a say in what goes on around them. It’s the reason why we revolted from the British right? We didn’t want to be under a king anymore. We shouldn’t tolerate kings in our enterprises.
Currents of socialism
There are many different currents of socialism which have this idea of what socialism should be like and the ideas it should undertake to establish such a society. Let’s go over the few biggest currents.
1. Democratic Socialism: this is the current that everyone has become familiar with due to Bernie Sanders and his presidential campaign. Democratic socialism is based on the idea that socialism can be achieved through reformist measures. Though many democratic socialists are revolutionaries as well, this is called “revolutionary democratic socialism”. Democratic socialists also believe that a state should exist to protect socialism but also, as a form of representative democracy. Most democratic socialists believe in market socialism, but many do advocate for a planned economy, be it centralized or decentralized. Classical Marxism is based on revolutionary democratic socialism.
2. Libertarian Socialism: this current advocates for a decentralized socialism. As for what this means, it means that there is a stateless socialism. Instead, socialism is to be managed at the community level and the state is replaced by a bottom-up government rather than its top-down decision-making, as it currently is. Most Libertarian Socialists are revolutionary socialists as they reject the concept of the state all together and believe revolution is the most necessary step to achieving said society. The most dominant ideology in libertarian socialism is anarchism, which is the most hardcore form of libertarian socialism. Others are often Libertarian Marxists or even Council Communists. I am personally a libertarian socialist and the ideology I adhere to is what’s called “communalism.”
3. Marxist-Leninism: this current is the “socialism” that most people are familiar with. I say “socialism” in parentheses because this current is often accused of not being real socialism. Marxist-Leninism (often called “Stalinism”) is a revolutionary ideology and philosophy which believes in a temporary, centralized state with a centrally planned economy which would eventually wither away.
It’s time to address the question that many are likely thinking.
What is communism?
This term is often used as a boogeyman by every anti-socialist. It gets rather annoying to hear someone say “this is communism” when it has never actually existed yet. But I digress.
Communism is the idea of a stateless, classless, moneyless society in which the means of production are owned democratically. Communism is often an ideal goal of many socialists as the society of post-scarcity. Class distinctions no longer exist. Money is not used for distribution of goods. And the state disappears.
It should be noted that all communists are socialists, but not all socialists are communists. In this I mean, that not all socialists necessarily believe in achieving the idea of communism. Some are skeptical or even downright hostile to the idea. I personally consider myself a communist.
The idea of “communism” as we know was developed by Karl Marx. Marx believed that the working class would one day overthrow the capitalist class and establish what is called a “dictatorship of the proletariat”. This idea is to mean what’s called a “workers democracy”, not anything like what would happen in the Soviet Union or Maoist China. Communism is often meant to mean something like Marxist-Leninism such as what went down in said countries. Truth be told, that is the opposite and neither country has ever claimed to be communist except that said society was their goal, but lying is beneficial to the bourgeoisie.
There is another popular current of communism called “anarcho-communism”. This was first developed by Pyotr Kropotkin. He wanted to create a synthesis between communism and anarchism by giving the latter a tradition. The basic idea is that you don’t need to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat and go straight towards communism and have it grow from within society.
What socialism isn’t
I want to go over a few things to get them out of the way.
For one, socialism is not when you have social democratic programs like universal healthcare, social security, or free college. These ideas were inspired by the distribution part of the socialist triangle but also, these programs were designed to de-radicalize people from socialism. Democratic socialists also helped in pushing these laws because they sought compromise with liberals in the assumption that socialism would happen.
For two, socialism is not when you have police stations, public highways, libraries, whatever government institution you can think of. These institutions are public services, not means of production. I really wish people would stop using these examples.
For three, socialism does not mean authoritarianism. Nor is socialism inherently authoritarian. This association is created by both the Communist bloc and its authoritarian tendencies, and the capitalist class constantly pushing this narrative because lying beneficial. Also, socialism doesn’t require authoritarian as there is no evidence to support this idea other than arguing by association.
Does socialism work?
“Socialism has never worked” is constantly said by liberals and conservatives to the point of truism. Of course, they never actually ask socialists if socialism has ever worked.
Available data suggests that labor-managed firms are more productive than their capitalist counterparts. Data suggests that worker cooperatives are more robust, resilient to price shock, likely to survive the first three years, and workers tend to be happier [4]. Basically, data shows that socialism works better than capitalism within the enterprise.
Let us also visit some past and present instances of socialism:
1. The Paris Commune was a brief socialism that occurred in 1871. It advanced many current left-wing themes such as secularism, feminism, direct democracy, child labor abolition, workplace democracy, etc. It was a major influence on Karl Marx.
2. Anarchist Catalonia was an anarcho-syndicalist uprising in the Catalan region during the Spanish Civil War. According to the accounts of George Orwell, the anarchists and communists in that day created a very prosperous society and fear of the boss disappeared. It wasn’t a total success from a human rights point of view, but we can learn from this.
3. Yugoslav workers’ self-management worked out quite well for a while.
4. Marinaleda is a small socialist commune in Spain that has been doing very well.
5. Rojava (my personal favorite) has been doing remarkably well despite the extreme conditions they are in. They doubled their population within 10 years and have been a beacon of refugee (particularly women) and democracy.
6. Zapatistas is a collection of socialist communes in Southeast Mexico and has been around since 1994. They run a bunch of coffee cooperatives.
7. Another often unknown success is Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. In the region, 40% of the enterprises are worker cooperatives [5]. They turned the region from one of the poorest in Italy into one of the wealthiest and most well developed in all of Europe. The locals wouldn’t have it any other way.
A common theme you will find across the history of socialism is that each experience learned from previous ones. If you’ve ever heard of the narrative that “this time they will get it right”, it’s because socialists are learning from one another. Mao Zedong along side his communist comrades would hide in caves before the revolution and review the Soviet Union. They would decide which parts they thought were good, and what shouldn’t be repeated. Anarchists do the same thing and will regularly criticize Catalonia. Socialism is around 200 years old and is figuring out how to overcome capitalism, which is often its biggest stumbling block. It took capitalism 300 years to overcome feudalism. They did the same thing that socialists today are doing now.
One conclusion that socialists have come to over the years is that socialism needs to be from the bottom-up, rather than the top-down as in the Marxist-Leninist or even social democratic projects.
Further Reading
If you want a longer advocacy of socialism, I can give you a few books and a pamphlet to read.
“Understanding Socialism” by Richard Wolff. He gives a very Marxist perspective on socialism and is the guy who inspired me to investigate socialism.
“Overcoming Capitalism” by Tom Wetzel. He gives a very anarchist perspective on socialism and even gives an anti-capitalist perspective from a modern era.
“Socialist Alternative” by Michael Lebowitz. This one is a harder read but this is where I got the idea of the Triangle of Socialism.
“The Socialist Manifesto” by Bhaskar Sunkara. This is a more market socialist perspective and gives a history of the Marxist tradition.
Social Ecology Pamphlet Emily McGuire (1).pdf This is a pamphlet of the socialist tradition that I personally come from.
Sources
[2] Oxford Languages.
[3] Lebowitz, Michael. “The Socialist Imperative”. Pg. 137. Monthly Review Press. ISBN# 9781583675465
[4] Worker Cooperatives Performance and Success Factors (co-oplaw.org)
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