From Marx to Miliband

There are many different variants of socialism and many different socialist philosophers. These range from Karl Marx to Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, the British Labour Party and… er… Tommy Sheridan.

Socialists seek to create a more equal society by changing capitalist society. Some seek to abolish capitalism altogether, others to control and modify it.

Socialists are opposed to capitalism’s tendency to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of the minority and win in the “dog eat dog” world of competition and the free market.

Michael Moore on Socialism

Branded by Marx as “utopian socialists”, people such as Robert Owen believed that if people were treated well, they would respond and society could be re-organised to meet the needs of all.

Marx believed capitalism had to abolished. The capitalist state had to be overthrown by a workers revolution.

In 1871, a workers uprising in Paris saw the creation of the first socialist state. The ‘Paris Commune’ , under the leadership of the Communards, declared its aim as "ending the anarchic and ruinous competition between workers for the profit of the capitalists", and the "dissemination of socialist ideals".

The Commune was violently crushed. It led Marx and Engels to draw conclusions about the nature of The State and how capitalism could be overthrown. The Paris Commune

MarxMarx believed that people were neither naturally good nor evil. They are the products of social class relations. Therefore in a capitalist society, people will be selfish as capitalism promotes selfishness and individualism.

However, the exploitative relations within capitalism; capitalists v workers, will force workers to co-operate together to overthrow the capitalists.

Marx believed that the state; the civil service, the police, army and royal family in a capitalist society served the interests of the capitalists or the ruling class. Kate Middleton, agent of the

bourgeoisie?

As such, it had to be over thrown by the working class by revolution. Marx believed that once communism was established, there would be no need for a state.

There would be equality so there would be no need for people to steal or murder.

The inequalities of capitalist society which, Marx argued, bred crime (bad housing, lack of education, dysfunctional family life) would be abolished.

Everyone would have a good upbringing so there would be no need for a police force or for prisons.

Marx believed that the state; the civil service, the police, army and royal family in a capitalist society served the interests of the capitalists or the ruling class.

“The executive of the modern state is nothing but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie”

The downfall of the Paris Commune showed for him that

“the working class cannot simply lay hold of ready-made state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes.”

The Communist Manifesto 1848

Marx believed that in the initial post revolutionary period, the socialist/communist party needs to prevent the capitalist class from returning.

Once world revolution can be achieved Marx believed the state would “wither away”, leaving communities to organise themselves.

Lenin had the practical task of putting Marx’s ideas into practice. His ideas about the state were written in his pamphlet “The State and Revolution”

Lenin argued that in an underdeveloped country such as Russia, the capitalist class would remain a threat even after a successful socialist revolution.

As a result, he advocated the repression of those elements of the capitalist class that took up arms against the new soviet government, writing that as long as classes existed, a state would need to exist to exercise the democratic rule of one class (in his view, the working class) over the other (the capitalist class)

"We do not at all disagree with the anarchists on the question of the abolition of the state as an aim. We maintain that, to achieve this aim, temporary use must be made of the instruments, means and methods of the state power against the exploiters, just as the dictatorship of the oppressed class is temporarily necessary for the annihilation of classes”.

Were the Bolsheviks responsible for the murder of the symbolic leaders of the old ruling class?

Only once communism was established on a world scale could Marx’s vision of a stateless society come about.

In the meantime, a state would be required in Russia to protect the new Communist Government from hostile capitalist forces.

Lenin believed that if communist revolution did not happen on an international scale, capitalism would return to Russia.

The state in Soviet Russia, would therefore, by definition, be a capitalist state.

The 1917 Russian revolution created the first “socialist state” – the USSR.

State planning of goods and services meant that the state decided how goods would be provided, not the “laws” of supply and demand

After WW2 “satellite” Soviet states were set up in eastern Europe.

Stalin came to power in Russia and ‘Stalinist’ one-party ‘Communist’ states were set up in eastern Europe.

The demolition of the Berlin wall ended the state of East Germany, socialist rule in eastern Europe and ultimately the end of the USSR itself.

Criticisms of lack of human rights, freedoms and living standards meant a serious defeat for socialist ideas in the west too.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

UK Labour governments had never sought to establish one-party rule or abolish capitalism.

They were more social democratic than purely socialist

The 1945 UK Labour Government is seen as the definitive socialist government. It set up the NHS, brought in council housing, comprehensive education and nationalised many industries.

The Spirit of ‘45

Capitalist critics such as the economists FA Hayek and Milton Friedman argue that the state must be reduced in order to allow people to act as free agents.

Margaret Thatcher put their ideas into practice; cutting taxes and privatising state owned industries.

“Socialists cry “Power to the people”, and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean—power over people, power to the State.”

Margaret Thatcher The Thatcher Years

After the Blair modernisation and the creation of “New Labour”, Labour has moved very much into the centre ground.

There are socialist parties around but these are small and have little support.

Respect, Scottish Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party, Solidarity, they have often spent as much time feuding with themselves and each other as campaigning for socialism!

To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange, and the best obtainable system of popular administration and control of each industry or service.

1918

The Labour Party is a democratic socialist party. It believes that by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few, where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe, and where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect.

1994

Clause 4 was the famous article in Labour’s constitution which committed the party to socialist change

"Although socialism is widely held by the establishment to be outdated, the things that are most popular in British society today are little pockets of socialism, where areas of life have been excluded from the crude operation of market forces and are protected for the benefit of the community"

“It's the same each time with progress.

First they ignore you, then they say you're mad, then dangerous, then there's a pause and then you can't find anyone who disagrees with you”.

Tony Benn

Tony Blair’s changes brought in ‘New Labour’. New Labour was unashamedly pro-business and sought to move away from its traditional socialist approach to public ownership (‘Old Labour’).

New Labour was discredited by, among other things, Tony Blair’s support for the Iraq war.

But ‘Old Labour’ has not returned. Instead, under the leadership of Ed Miliband, so-called ‘Blue Labour’ is an attempt to establish ‘caring capitalism’ and, to use a phrase, ‘One Nation’.

Miliband has criticised ‘greedy’ capitalist companies who over charge, pay few taxes and pay low wages.

But Blue Labour is keen to attract the votes of centre ground voters and there will be no return to ‘Old Labour’ policies.

Blue Labour