Much of this is drawn from Engles’ “Socialism, Utopian and Scientific.” And the “Communist Manifesto” by Marx and Engles.
Socialism is the result of a revolution.
Socialism in the absence of a revolution is not socialism.
It may be social/bourgeoisie democracy (meaning elites still control the means of production--but more gently), as in Sweden or Venezuela, but socialism means the working class is in power. That is not possible without a revolution.
Absent a revolution that puts the majority, poor and working people, in control of every aspect of government, the appearances of socialism can be easily reversed. For example, the forty hour week, won by mass worker uprisings in the US in the thirties, has been washed away.
Socialism presumes government, the state, continues to exist, a dictatorship, not of the rich, but of the workers and other formerly oppressed people.
This is called the “dictatorship of the proletariat(extended, this means the workers, peasants, soldiers, etc.),” as distinct from the dictatorship of the capitalists.
Socialism uses its government to apply varying methods to socialize, commune-alize, equalize, production and social life.
It is a stage that Marx and Engles believed could lay the basis for greater and greater equality and democracy (democracy in the absence of generalized equality is always counterfeit).
Once general equality is reached, there is theoretically no need for a state, a government, and when the state “withers away,” communism is won.
The dictatorship of the proletariat presumes leadership of a party which typically led the revolution.
Socialism has used the Paris Commune of 1871 ( https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/ncm-5/rcp-paris-commune.htm) as an example.
Key lessons of the Commune: Immediate recall of elected leaders, direct elections, no elected leader paid more than average worker, workers paid approximately the same, an armed populace.
What countries are or have been socialist? USSR (briefly, quickly destroyed by the “New Economic Policy” --below), and China, briefly, “New Democracy.” Maybe Cuba, Albania, Soviet satellite states in Eastern. Europe.
Socialism’s slogan: from each according to their work to each according to their need.
Problems that led to the failure of socialism so far:
1) Theory of Productive Forces.
In brief, beginning with the Russian (Bolshevik Party) revolution, the first of its kind, the backwardness of mostly peasant Russian (which became the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) coupled with the destructiveness of the revolution and subsequent Civil War (the USSR was invaded by every empire, including the USA) meant the productive forces (factories, science labs, water supply--everything) were in terrible shape.
The Bolsheviks had also believed that their Russian Revolution would lead to revolutions in Europe, expanding their base of support. Those revolutions never happened. In wealthy Germany, an attempted revolution was crushed.
Lenin, who forced through the Russian Revolution, theorized that it was necessary to recruit scientists, technicians, bureaucrats, and other specialists in order to build up a base of abundance which could be shared out for more equality in the distant future.
He wrote the “New Economic Policy,” (NEP) which openly restored capitalism to the USSR in the early 1920s.
The NEP offered those specialists higher pay, more privileges, etc.
In order to keep this new class of people in check, the Bolsheviks determined that the party leadership needed to be paid more, offered more privileges, than the specialists--hence another new ruling class--sitting on top of an openly declared capitalist government.
The party became a dictatorship with one man, Joe Stalin, sitting on top.
This followed a pattern, set by Napoleon following the French Revolution. It’s called “Thermidor,” (from the French Revolution, meaning counter-revolution) a failed revolution leading to a one-man dictatorship.
I call that social-fascism, somewhat distinct from German or Japanese fascism.
After the much longer revolution in China was victorious in 1949, Mao led the Chinese to “New Democracy,” modeled directly after the NEP. Mao became dictator and lived like god.
In the mid-sixties, the “Cultural Revolution” in China sought to overturn the “Capitalist Roaders” in the Chinese Communist Party. It is unclear if the “CCR” was started by Mao himself, or if a leftist movement in China initiated it.
In either case, after years of upheaval (which improved the lives of millions of peasants and also killed many innocents) the Cultural Revolution was crushed by the not-so-red Army.
Since then, China, clearly a capitalist dictatorship run by a bogus “Communist” Party has advanced rapidly and is developing into a world capitalist empire challenging the US and the world.
In both cases, of Russian and China, inequality was deliberately, openly, re-established with the party at top.
2) Using the NEP as a starting point, Lenin late in life said socialism is: “Taylorism with the party-- plus electricity. In other words, socialism is efficient workers coupled with modern forms of power, owned by the party dictatorship--serving only the party.
3) No fake “socialist” country sought to overturn Nationalism, while Marx said, “workers of all countries unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains.
This anti-Marxist move was achieved in part by claiming “rights of national self-determination.” If that is to always be honored, the US south would be another country today.
Stalin soon declared he was building, “Socialism in One Country,” upending any pretense of Marxist internationalism.
3) Cults of personality. Stalinism (quickly above criticism--with death and gulags as penalties) became fascism. Maoism became fascism. Castro was a dictator. Now his brother is a dictator.
4) Stalin in the mid 1930's claimed class struggle ended in the USSR (but socialism presumes the state still exists because classes still exist). So, Stalin abolished class struggle in practice.
At the same time, he wiped out the “negation of negation” (meaning endless change) in Soviet philosophy. Stalin, thus, abolished class struggle in Soviet theory.
By 1935, Stalin had killed all the old Bolsheviks who led the Russian Revolution.
5) Education (start with checking for segregation) is always a bellwether. If no criticism of the party is allowed, if exploited labor and battles for empire are seen as so normal, they are invisible, that’s probably not what Marx and Engles meant by socialism.
Communism has never existed inside any given state. Communism presumes the state has withered away because general equality exists.
Communist slogan: From each according to ability to each according to need.
Communism has existed, however, within revo movements and to one degree or another within utopian communes. Utopian communes never survive long within capitalism.
For example, the Chinese red army was a more or less communist force. It operated on principals outlined by the Paris Commune (above) and involved millions of people.
Class war, within nations, and empire’s wars between nations, persists.
People will fight back. At issue: will they grasp why they fight back and, maybe, win, or will they fight ghosts and phantoms and petty reforms alone--and lose---again?
The “Communist Manifesto” is online here: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/
“Socialism, Utopian and Scientific” is online here: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1880/soc-utop/index.htm
Rich Gibson 2018