Socialism and the Russian Bolshevik Governm
Socialism and the Russian Bolshevik Governm Five Year Plan Seen Doomed to Failure as Effort to Advance By Bela Low rw-HE editor of The New LeaderX asked for a contribution tothe discussion...
...But, they say, Russia shows many Socialist traits: it has a workers'government, private capital andprofit have been abolished, thereis planned production...
...Karl s casted the trend t ment with and the course of t th* last eighty his fundamental correct Russia disprove it unless one _ what we see la RuenTism...
...neither in the trade unions, nor in the Soviets can they vote for anyone who is opposed to Communism and the candidate must be acceptable to the rulers...
...Nobody could havesucceeded, because conditions InRussia were not ripe for suchmeasures, and because under no, conditions can such measures bes successfully employed* by force...
...Those Socialists whosympathize with the Russian rulersare somewhat shame-faced aboutfully accepting this assertion...
...The standard of living of the Russian workingmanis far below that of any civilized country, and for the majority of workers, lower than under theCzar, although the working day is somewhat shorter now...
...What has been accomplished intheir interests...
...Ever since theyseized power, the Bolsheviks prided themselves on having a planned production...
...Socialism and the Russian Bolshevik Governm Five Year Plan Seen Doomed to Failure as Effort to Advance By Bela Low rw-HE editor of The New LeaderX asked for a contribution tothe discussion whether the fiveyear plan can succeed...
...A careful calculation is made how many men will be needed for each particular occupation, how much raw material and power are required for each subdivision of the process, so that no time or material is wasted and the proper ll of production s each branch of the plant Thus capitalism is laying the basts for planned production...
...this would eliminate industrialcrisis, unemployment and all those evils which are a coniequence of the unregulated production under capitalism...
...Theyhave no right to strike...
...Furthermore, in each modern factory production is planned...
...From a Socialist point of view, the five-year plan cannot be called successful if it will merely resultin some increased productivity...
...Other Socialists are of exactlythe opposite opinion...
...The firstquestion then is: What do we meanby success...
...The trade unions are not organizations to protect the work era' interests, but administrative organ* of the government, their officials installed and their policiesdictated by the government The workers cannot voice any opposition...
...the state of the Incas in Peru, for instance, was a Communistically organizedaristocracy, living on the exploitation of peasant slaves...
...all thatremains to be done Is to extend the System from the individual plantito society as a whole, which can * be done when society owns the rmeans of production...
...There is complete absence of the most elementary civil rights, such as freedom of press, of speech, of organization, of election...
...Capitalism is thus laying the basis for a socially conducted producs tion...
...But it will be said, there is no private profit so there is no exploitation of labor...
...However, it is claimed, private capital and profit have been abolished, and there is planned production...
...they consider it impossible that Socialismcan be brought about by the Bo* sheviks...
...There is a State Planning Commission...
...There is no such thing as a workers' gov| ernment, unless the government is controlled by the workers...
...This is, by the way, not a recent departure, as some think, but ex ists since 1921...
...Therefore, If we are for the abolition of private capital, it is because we feel that a socially eonducted industry will be more efficientOnly when and where thatla the case, can there be any reason for the change...
...In modern induse try, the product is th* result ofe the cooperation of many, usuallythousands of employees...
...Second, and as the ultimate purpose, to consciously supply the needs of the population to the utmost What do we see in Russia...
...No free and self-re| »pecting worker wants a despot...
...recentlyeven the right to change their jobs has been taken from them...
...the Bolsheviks are building up a Socialistsociety and dserve our support...
...In fore mer times, production was carried on by the individual, with simplea individually owned tools, and the product of his own work logically, belonged to htm...
...does not even succeed in regulating production...
...Under capitalism, thef number of wage workers continuy ously increases, they become or * ganized, they gradually so* that a they cannot free themselves fromf exploitation without a radicalchange of the entire system...
...The purpose of planning production under Socialist is twofold...
...so the Bolsheviks have inaugurated a mode of productionwhich Socialists have always advocated...
...In Russia, we see that state-controlled industryis most inefficient As one illustration, the cost of industrial "products made in Russia is on the average three times as much aselsewhere...
...public...
...Even underSocialism, the worker will not get the full product of his toil, as part of it will be needed for the upkeep of public services and for expansion of production...
...The Russian Socialists, who are best qualifiedto speak on the matter, thoughthere are differences among themon some points, are unanimous in 'their condemnation of the Bolshevik government...
...When we favor Socialism...
...But there willbe no exploitation, because Socialism essentially means that societyis the master of the state...
...This is especially true since the inauguration of the present plan...
...In Russia, on the other hand, the state is the absolute master of society, and it withholds from the worker an exorbitant portion of his product One example: in 1927, thaverage wage was 1.21 ruble per day, the average value of output per man-day was 10.78 rubles...
...Clothes, shoes, eggs, milk, butter and other necessities are scarce, fantastically expensive and beyond reach of almost everybody, in Russiawhile they are thrown on neighboring markets...
...In capitalist society, labor is exploited because it gets in the form of wages only partof the value which it creates...
...There is only one party, the Communist Party...
...d But capitalism not only develops e th* economic conditions for a Soe cialist sodety, it also creates the y class that will bring about thechange...
...Has Russia then a workers' government...
...However, that is not the important factor indetermining the Socialist positionon the Russian government...
...Socialism is, after all, only ameans to aa end...
...Socialists have never conceived aworXers' government to mean ashitting of roles, by which the former superiors become the most degraded...
...Such privileges are poor consolation for the mass of Russian workers, who have no rights and are governed by a hugej bureaucracy...
...The Russian government is exactly in Una with thatdefinition...
...Let us examine this point of view in some detail and see whether it is justified...
...There is nothing t Socialistic in a plan which Increases misery and...
...How Will Socialism Come...
...History gives several examplesthat state ownership and exploitation can well go together...
...Still leas has It succeeded in providing the masses with the mos elementary needs of subsistence...
...Nana...
...If Socialismt could not accomplish such aa improvement, there would be no justification for it...
...s Conversely, where in a country e large Industry does not predominate, where therefore the basis for p socially conducted and planned production has not been developed, and where the working class consequently is numerically weak and undeveloped, there Socialism cannot yet be brought about This, briefly, is the Marxian exnlanation of the conditions under which Socialism will coma The disciples of Marx have never considered Marxian theory as a I dogma to be accepted on faith, regardless of whether elwith facts or not 5wlgarded it as aprating and forecast raatfcT...
...But there is planned production, which is something that Socialists stand for...
...about or at least work tord Socialism...
...Unless state control of industry serves society and results in a substantial Increase of general well-being, there is nothing Socialistic in such ameasure...
...They regard it as a menace to the Russian people, the workers included...
...It is quite obvious that Socialism, which is to provide plenty for . all, cannot be put into effect except where there is enough to go around...
...not even a paternal one...
...First to regulate production, so that there should not be any disproportion in its various spheres...
...It may be assumedthat the expenditure of billions of rubles, together with the employment of thousands of foreign technicians, will result in an increasedoutput of some goods...
...For the first time in human history, there is the possibility where large s industry prevails of satisfy lag alle reasonable human needs, Thus* modem Industry and science amy laving the foundation for a Soe cialist society...
...It was the historic role of capitalism to bring about a mode of production which has created t wealth and a productive capacity undreamed of in former times...
...all that remains to be done is to bring ownership into keepingwith production, social ownershipinstead of private ownership of the means of production...
...Leninonce defined a dictatorship as "aregime which directly rests onforce and which la not limited byany laws...
...As one Illustration of the much-lauded social legislation, he gets leu unemployment insurance in a monththan the German in a week...
...only a Communist press exists...
...Socialism can only bes the outgrowth of a highly devel, oped capitalism, and will ber brought about as the final outcome of the class struggle by the working class...
...they have applied it ( t admirably suited...
...Irrespective of time and place, st merely through the wish to have...
...The present plan is the . result of th* revision of a previous five-year plan, and there is a fifteenyear plan besides...
...we do so because we are convinced that under Socialism toe productivity will be raised to a much higher level and the conditions of the mass as will greatly improve...
...In general, is the *-->'«hevik regime in the interest of -sis, of progress, of Socialism* Doe« Russia Show Any Socialist Traits...
...Aside fromItaly...
...the question is whether it can brie...
...it is asocial product But the form ofr ownership is the same aa in previous times, the owner of th* tool, that is of the factory, railroad, e mine, Is still the owner of thee product although it is not th* product of his labor, but that of the combined labor of many others...
...Rus3ia is the only country in which no Socialist Party is allowed...
...it Certain objective conditions are necessary for Socialism to be realt ized...
...The dictatorship and terror areeither justified in view of this greatgoal, or are considered merely aminor blemish...
...e Not only th* technology of pron duction has changed under capih talism, but consequently also th* o character of production...
...Economically, Russia is' as backward country, the rural population comprising about 80 per cent with a low industrial development the working class constituting perhaps 8 per cent of the , population...
...The Bolsheviks claim that RussiaIs a Socialist state with Socialistproduction...
...the balance, the surplus value, la appropriated by capital...
...cotton crisis, steel crisis, money crisis, railroad .crisis (thisthe last), are matters complainedof continuously in the Bolshevikpress...
...Fin l, ally, they become numerous enough , to conquer political power, and at e th* same time' intellectually and * psychologically fit to govern, as f th* majority In a democratic re...
...Furthermore, in order to expand the baste industries, exports were increased so as to pay for imports, whereby the standard of living has been lowered considerably...
...Instead of private capital, the state has become the exploiter par excellence...
...It is true that he enjoys some privileges, not because the level of the workers has been raised, but because former bourgeois and many intellectuals have been reduced to the status of paupers and pariahs...
...The planning commission has never succeeded in doing away with disproportions...
...it is characterized by an enormousintensification of work and a superexploitation of workers...
...a dictatorship...
...To be concluded sen tj...
...d According to Socialist views, a Socialist society cannot be created...
...not on* a can say that he made it...
...Ail opposition, includingthat from workers and even Communist*, la ruthlessly auppfsssidby means of a demoralizing springsystem, by saaaa imprisonmentsand by ozeotrttoa* The dictatorship is not one of the workers, noeven of the Communist Party, butof a group wtthin that party...
...It is unfortunate that J most remarkable of the human a theory which has Bwdetf movement on its v) t for the last eighty . here in the United quently casually put pooh-poohed by sobm especially by those, sad be stated frankly, whs pied themselves least whoa* utterances at have the most hasy It Most of us agree witttfjjust outlined, but when t\ Russia some forget ft athe Communist doctrsa minority, seizing power I can create the necessary Jand industrial basis astlSocialism by force...
...While a part, and only a very small one, of the workingclass belongs to the Communist Party and the major part of these are no more workers, but members of the bureaucracy—the work en u t whole axe deprived of all freedom, just aa all other elementsare...
...If the expropriation of capital, the absence of private profit the so-called planned production do not make Russia a Socialist state, do not even give the country a Socialistic semblance, because these measures do not hare the resultsfor which Socialists advocated them, this does not mean that th* e Bolsheviks did everything poorlys and that otters could have doneit better...
...But if it is not a governmentby the workers, it is supposedlya government for the workers...
...doctrine means that willeconomic life of modern 1a natural growth, can Mally imposed from the *| is a worship of the c force...
...As generally known, the so-called Soviet government rules by means of...
Vol. 3 • February 1931 • No. 7
