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What Is Socialism?
(A slightly enlarged version of a talk given to a group of students in 1991 by Ray
Nunes, late Chairman WPNZ)
There is great confusion in the world today over this question
...

How is this possible? The question has many sides, as with all complex questions (and even
simple ones)
...

Historically the word – and the concept of – socialism came first
...

The Utopians
The word was first coined early in the 19th century in regard to the doctrines advocated by
the
French utopian socialists Charles Fourier and Henri Saint-Simon, and became common in
England from about the time of Robert Owen – another great Utopian socialist, in the 1830s
...
These were rooted in the economic and social conditions of
the
times, in the as yet undeveloped nature of the capitalist economy and with this, the lack of
development of the working class as an independent political force
...
The great utopians were sympathetic to the terrible
conditions of the working class, but because the class struggle was in an undeveloped state
they
could only see the improvements they wanted coming from convincing all classes they were
right
...

Thus, Robert Owen, the great British utopian, having shown that it was possible for the
downtrodden workers to live like human beings (he provided good wages, good housing –
good
elementary education to his workers and their families in the village associated with the
cotton
mills he owned at New Lanark) believed that the socialism he envisaged was so obviously
superior to capitalism that the ruling capitalist class could not fail to be converted to
socialism
once its advantages were clearly presented to them
...
What he found was that whereas formerly the capitalists had
hailed him as
‘the great philanthropist’, he was now cast into the outer darkness as a menace to society
...
In Britain the Chartist movement was the first mass independent
political movement of the working class in history
...

Into this Europe, torn by growing class struggles between the propertyless urban workers, the
proletariat, and the employing classes, the capitalists – particularly the manufacturers – Karl
Marx and Frederick Engels grew to maturity in Germany
...

This Marx and Engels set out to provide, and did so, beginning with the Communist
Manifesto,
‘a little book worth whole volumes’, as Lenin remarked
...
It consisted of adherents mainly of the ‘Fourierists’ and ‘Owenites’ which
had
already declined into sects with various quack remedies
...

Thus,
socialism was a middle-class movement, communism a working-class movement
...
Engels writes:
‘And as our notion, from the very beginning, was that "the emancipation of the working class
must be the act of the working class itself", there could be no doubt as to which of the two
names
we must take
...
’
In reality, there were a number of other so-called ‘socialist’ trends at the time
...
’
Today, most are mere curiosities: Feudal socialism, clerical socialism, petty-bourgeois
socialism,
German or ‘True’ socialism
...
These seek to peacefully redress social grievances without
causing the bourgeoisie any distress
...

But in attacking socialism in the 'Auckland Star’s' columns some years back he denounced
different Labour politicians for being unable to give him a definition of socialism
...
Among them was Cath
Tizard,
our ‘socialist’ Governor-General
...
The reality was that while Labour politicians talked about socialism,
in
practice they carried on running capitalism
...
Collectively, these became
known as the ‘Welfare State’ – but they were not socialism
...

That did not stop the exploiting classes from denouncing Labour governments
as ‘socialists’ or ‘communists’ at every opportunity
...
This
was
nothing new in the world
...
’
The Labour Party's real role
Long ago Frederick Engels characterised the British Labour Party as ‘the bourgeois Labour
Party’
...
In New Zealand the Labour Party was
created in the image of British Labour; it, too, was and is a ‘bourgeois Labour Party’ - one
that
runs capitalism on behalf of the exploiters
...
But this by no means makes it a political party of the workers, as Lenin
pointed
out to workers back in 1920 in the following words:
‘Of course, most of the Labour Party's members are working-men
...
Regarded from this,
the only
correct, point of view, the Labour Party is a thoroughly bourgeois party, because, although
made up of
workers, it is led by reactionaries, and the worst kind of reactionaries at that, who act quite in
the spirit of
the bourgeoisie which exists to systematically dupe the workers with the aid of the British
Noskes and
Scheidemanns
...
1The New Zealand Labour Party never attempted to socialise the means of production and

exchange
...
All
their ‘socialism’ amounted to was state capitalism, in which the state was controlled and run
by
the capitalist class
...

Marx and Engels actually transformed socialism from a Utopia into a science
...

Socialism as a science
The essentials of this theory were comprised of three sources and component parts: The
philosophy of dialectical materialism, which arose out of classical German philosophy;
Marxist
Political Economy, which had its source in the works of classic English political economy;
and
the theory and tactics of the class struggle, which comes under the head of ‘French socialism’
...

As Marx was the prime mover in his and Engels partnership, we shall just refer to him, for
brevity’s sake, remembering that they were close colleagues in everything that mattered
...
That is, he considered that in the development of nature and society,
matter is primary, thought, consciousness, secondary, derivative
...
From Hegel,
the
idealist philosopher (who proceeded from thought to things) Marx extracted his great
philosophical achievement, the dialectical method
...

Consistently extending this outlook to the sphere of social phenomena, Marx discovered and
substantiated the scientific view of history known as historical materialism
...

Those studies, profound and extensive, showed Marx that, apart from primitive communal
society, all history was a history of class struggles
...
With the aid of historical materialism and using the
dialectical method of investigation, Marx
was able to analyse in great and accurate detail the whole system of capitalist production in
all its

complexity
...

Published in 1848, the Communist Manifesto and other works were early fruit of Marx and
Engels’ joint labours
...

This process was continued with Marx’s epochal work ‘Capital’, which became the virtual
‘bible
of the working-class’
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‘Capital’ not only scientifically explained capitalism - on the basis of enormous, painstaking
research - as a socio-economic formation still in a state of development
...
All were forms of surplus value, having their origin in
capitalist production which was based on the special value-creating commodity bought by the
capitalists – labour power
...
In
doing
this, he equipped the workers with a scientific understanding of society and of their class role
as
the chief executants of the transformation of capitalism into socialism
...
Engels points out that with the
discovery of surplus value and historical materialism, socialism left behind utopias and
became a
science
...

Always basing themselves on the firm ground of historical experience, Marx and Engels kept
developing their scientific socialist theory as long as they lived
...
Engels wrote to one correspondent that Marxist theory is not a dogma, but a guide to
action
...
29, 1886)
...
This replaced the ‘free competition’ of Marx’s
day
...
These were analysed by Lenin,
who

also organised and led the Bolshevik Party, under whose leadership the workers
accomplished
the epoch-making November 7 socialist revolution in Russia in 1917
...

From the time of the ‘Manifesto’ on, Marx developed his ideas on the state
...
The experience of the Paris Commune of
1871,
when the Parisian workers held power for six weeks, led him to declare that the proletariat
could
not lay hold of the existing state machine and wield it for its own purposes
...

In one of his last works, the ‘Critique of the Gotha Programme’ Marx expressed some further
basic ideas in relation to the overthrow of capitalism
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Socialism and Communism
In the ‘Critique’ he distinguished between the lower and higher phases of communism
...
Even when capitalism was overthrown, the masses
of
working people came into the new society with all the birthmarks of the old upon them
...

In the first period the principle would apply: ‘From each according to his ability, to each
according to his work’
...
To achieve an economy of abundance all members of society would have to
work
...
’
This socialist principle was necessary while a new economy was built, an economy of
abundance, and while people gradually became more and more accustomed to working for
the
benefit of all instead of just for the most one could get
...
Communism is the abolition of classes
Only when the level of the productive forces had been greatly raised and an economy of
abundance attained, and also the cooperation between people had become a matter of
everyday
life, of simple social practice because their outlook had been transformed, only then, when
the
distinctions between town and country and between mental and manual labour had been
abolished, could the abolition of economic classes be treated as fact, and the principle of
communism be applied, that is:‘From each according to his ability, to each according to
his
needs
...
That is how Lenin treats them in his book: ‘The State and Revolution’
...
They died before monopoly
capitalism became dominant
...
A
...

Lenin’s systematic analysis, set forth in his path-breaking work: ‘Imperialism, the Highest
Stage
of Capitalism’, briefly defines the main features of imperialism as follows:
1) The concentration of production and capital [has] developed to such a stage that it creates
monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life
...

3) The export of capital, has become extremely important, as distinguished from the export of
commodities
...

5) The territorial division of the whole world is completed
...
He exposed
the
economic essence of imperialism - i
...
, monopoly capitalism - on the basis of analysing not
just a
few unrepresentative or isolated examples, but, as he wrote in a preface, analysing ‘the whole
of
the data concerning the basis of economic life in all the belligerent countries and
the whole world
...
e
...

The domination of monopoly inevitably retards the development of the productive forces of
society in the interests of maintaining monopoly profits through monopolistic prices and
controls, constantly manifested in the high cost of living
...

Thus, on the basis of irrefutable summarised data, Lenin shows that imperialism is a decaying,
parasitic system, a moribund system which, because different national monopoly capitalist
groupings develop unevenly, leads inevitably to struggles between them over which group
shall
be dominant, and hence to various kinds of wars – including the suppression of struggles for
independence and national liberation – and in particular to imperialist wars between the great
capitalist powers for the redivision of an already divided world
...
Behind all the patriotic catchwords of ‘freedom’, ‘democracy’, the ‘defence of
small
nations’ etc
...
It was an imperialist war on both sides, wholly opposed to
the interests of the great mass of workers and toiling people who were used simply as
cannon fodder
...

Lenin’s theoretical work (which went hand-in-hand with revolutionary practice) was
Marxism in
the era of imperialism
...

Leninism was a further development of Marxism, and the theory justly became known as
Marxism-Leninism
...

In analysing imperialism, Lenin showed that monopoly capitalism intensified this uneven
development
...

Moreover, there was uneven development in the level of the working-class movement in the
different countries of Europe
...
However, Lenin saw that under imperialism this was no longer
possible
...
On the contrary, he declared that it was now
possible for revolution to occur in a group of countries or even one country taken on its own
...
3 This guided the socialist revolution to success in November,
1917
...
It was not
...

Thus, Lenin, utilising the granite basis of Marxist theory, creatively applied it in the new
epoch
...

Not only did the socialist revolution in Russia prove the general correctness of Marx’s theory;
the victory of the Chinese revolution under the leadership of Mao Tse-tung gave additional
proof
that Marxism-Leninism was a scientifically correct theory, valid also - provided it was
applied
non-dogmatically - in less developed countries of the world
...

Socialism in practice: Paris 1871 to Russia, 1917
Now we come to the second side of the question; the existence and experience of socialist
countries
...
This was the first example in history of the seizure of political power by the
working class and was accompanied by amazing achievements: the establishment of social
ownership of the national workshops; the abolition of crime (though under siege, ringed by
the
German army, there was mass democratic control); the abolition of many inequalities
...
’
What led to the Commune’s defeat was their too great magnanimity
...
Later these were used to
crush
the Commune
...
Its power was
used
against them
...
It was allowed to
leave,
and soon re-organised – with German complicity – a sufficient force to seize Paris and
overthrow
the Commune
...

They were thoroughly absorbed by Lenin and were an important factor in the success of the
socialist revolution of November, 1917
...

A party of a new type
Lenin early saw that the old European socialist and social-democratic parties did not follow
Marx and propagate the idea of the necessity of socialist revolution
...
Their trade union and
political leaders actively collaborated with their capitalist governments on important
questions
...

Lenin built such a party
...
It led the overthrow of
Tsarism in March, 1917 (new-style), and in November accomplished the socialist revolution
in a
nearly bloodless insurrection
...
However, in November the working class suppressed this
government and established Soviet power, a new form of state under their control
...
Backed by the Entente imperialists
they
began a counter-revolutionary civil war in which, along with the reactionary armies of
Tsarism
and capitalism, the armies of fourteen imperialist countries and their stooges, headed by the
Allied powers of Britain, France, Japan and the USA tried – but failed – to crush the infant
Soviet Republic
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Despite having to overcome incredible difficulties the Soviet Union forged ahead
...
Lenin planned the further
construction
of socialism in the USSR but died in 1924
...
This he did with great success
...
e
...

The workers internationally found the Soviet Union a beacon of hope for the future
...
They set out to destroy it, thinking to
use
Hitler and Nazi Germany to this end
...
They failed
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Even before the war ended, the US imperialists launched the ‘cold war’ against the Soviet
Union
...

When Stalin died in 1953 socialism appeared to be firmly established in the Soviet Union,
Eastern Europe and in China - which under Mao’s leadership had carried out its own mighty,
world-historic revolution
...

Stalin made mistakes and had his faults, some of them serious
...
Some mistakes were avoidable
...
Both these errors played a role in leading to the restoration of capitalism
in
the USSR and Eastern Europe
...

Stalin lacked Mao’s grasp of Marxist philosophy and as a result became arbitrary and stopped
relying on the masses
...
Because of
this shortcoming, Stalin extended the scope of the suppression of counter-revolution to
include
people who were not counter-revolutionaries but had made errors
...

Khrushchev and Khrushchevism exposed and refuted by Mao
How did Gorbachev and Yeltsin get to power? Mainly through the growth of a new
bourgeoisie
in the Soviet Union
...
in order to build
up
the country’s productive forces quickly so as to meet the people’s needs, and to build a heavy
industry to defend socialism against the anticipated imperialist attack
...
But it had a negative side which was not foreseen
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Before Stalin’s death they could not organise to bid for power
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After
his death, Khrushchev managed to usurp power
...
He quickly
removed many working-class cadres from leading committees and replaced them with new
bourgeois elements who supported him
...
This report negated Stalin totally, denied that he had a single positive
achievement to
his credit
...
Now, backed by the
new
bourgeoisie which had secured leadership in the Party and state, he set about restoring
capitalism
...
Instead of promoting the ideals of Marx and Lenin he put
the
rouble in command and destroyed the enthusiasm of the masses for socialism, which had
been
the force for unity of the people in constructing the new social order
...
For further detail we have to refer you to
the
Workers’ Party of New Zealand pamphlet ‘What Went Wrong in Russia and China’
...
It soon became
clear to Mao Tse-tung that the Khrushchev clique were set on restoring
capitalism, that they were revisionists who were trying to push the socialist bloc – one third
of
the world’s people – on to the capitalist road
...
4 This only happened after Khrushchev and Co
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In a series of well-documented, closely-reasoned theoretical pamphlets written under Mao’s
direction and using Mao’s basic formulations, the Communist Party of China carried on a
great
polemic which exposed Khrushchev and Co
...

While most Soviet bloc countries followed the capitalist road of Khrushchev’s revisionism,
Albania allied itself with China
...

Hoxha
and Co
...
We
will return to this question later
...
This stand was adopted by the Communist Party of
New
Zealand National Conference in 1963 and held to until late 1979
...
This was based on the view that class
struggle continued under socialism until the higher stage of Communism was reached, and
that
while it was not possible to prevent new bourgeois elements from emerging under socialism,
it
was certainly possible to prevent them form seizing power by avoiding high material
incentives,
by strengthening mass democracy and mass supervision of state and Party cadres, and by
gradually eliminating the distinction between mental and manual labour, and that between
town
and country
...

Taking
into account both Soviet and Chinese experience, Mao concluded that merely removing a few
diehard revisionists from leadership could not be a guarantee against a revisionist takeover in
China
...
Such a thing could not be
done
by the usual socialist education campaigns, nor, in his view, solely by inner-Party struggle
...

It is clear from the content of the reports and articles of 1965-66 on the subject that what Mao
had in mind was a revolution in which the working-class played the leading role and the aim
of
which was to strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat through mass supervision of all
aspects
of political, social and intellectual activity in Chinese society
...
A month after
Mao’s
death right-wingers in the Central Committee seized power in a coup d’etat and began the

restoration of capitalism
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Today neither the Soviet Union nor China is socialist
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This had happened in Eastern Europe and under pressure from Khrushchev’s revisionist
clique,
most other former socialist bloc countries soon followed suit
...

Albania, as is now perfectly clear, is also in the same category
...

After Mao’s death the rightists in China cut off aid to Albania
...
Their purpose in this was to
seize
the leadership of the world Marxist-Leninist movement and to establish Hoxha as the true
successor of Stalin
...
The author was one of these latter
...
Meantime Albania followed the dogmatic line of Hoxha which in due course turned
into its opposite, revisionism, as the author of this pamphlet predicted would happen
...
It does not blindly
follow any overseas party but judges each situation on its merits and makes up its mind
independently
...
We recognise that Mao made certain errors in relation to the
Cultural
Revolution, in particular initially placing the student youth in the leading role, but that he also
made great contributions to Marxism-Leninism
...

What lessons the restoration of capitalism in former socialist countries holds for the future are
now generally clear
...
Capitalism is based on the exploitation of the working class
...
Internal contradictions or conflicts exist within the imperialist system of
today which inevitably lead to the socialist revolution
...
Until revisionism took over in the socialist
countries and restored capitalism, socialism had already proved its superiority from the point
of
view of the great majority of the people
...
The best guide to this is
Mao’s
‘Theory of Continued Revolution under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat
...
(The influence of imperialism was a
secondary cause)
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5) This will occupy a very long period of time
...
But whatever, the nature of imperialism will objectively force on this development
...

NOTES
1 Lenin, Collected Works Vol 31, pp257-8
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3 See the article: ‘On the Slogan for a United States of Europe’, Vol
...
Lenin
forcefully restates the same idea of achieving the victory of socialism in one country in 'The
Military
Programme of the Proletarian Revolution' (In Vol 23 of his Collected Works)
...
In particular it emasculates
Marxism
Leninism by attacking and eliminating revolution under cover of Marxist-Leninist
phraseology

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