>>> gcf at panix.com 02/20/01 07:40AM >>>
Capitalism requires that some have much, and others little
or nothing, so that the capitalist political and economic
role can be enacted; that is, capitalists require a working
class. But assuming human beings are at least potentially
willful, autonomous, and self-interested, then if two or
more of them are in contact, and one has so much more
property than the other that the former has power over the
latter, the latter will naturally try to seize the goods of
the former; because it is contrary to simple reason to
expect any willful, rational being to accept subordination,
which may amount to slavery or death. Class can be
maintained only by means of class war. Hence, capitalists
must construct strong, centralized states (and now, indeed,
metastates) to protect their interests -- their political
status and the property it depends on. And this is what
we see in history.
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CB: Well said ! This idea of that a sense of equality is contrary to simple reason and rationality is the thesis on human nature that is central to _The Manifesto of the Communist Party_. Why is history a history of class struggles, because oppressed and exploited human beings fight by nature for equality with their oppressors. This is the fundamental Marxist concept of equality.
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Since we observe production carried out by parterships between equals, cooperatives, communes and the like -- socialist arrangements -- we know that domination and subordination are not intrinsically necessary to production.
There is a theory that capitalism can be ameliorated through social democracy or the Welfare State. But this does not appear to be the case in practice. The modifications are applied only during times of crisis, and are withdrawn when the ruling class feels sure of its position, exactly as common sense tells us they would be.
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>>> rasoj at hotmail.com 02/20/01 04:27AM >>>I'm no apologist for the USSR but it should be noted that repression in the
Soviet Union and its satellites during the second half of the 20th century
(post-Stalin) was not remotely comparable to the scale and savagery of
repression in the capitalist Third World during the same period.
Cheers, Joseph _____________
CB: Yes, indeed. Most of the premature deaths in socialist countries are attributable to the murderous invasions and threats and pressures from imperialism. Without the foul intervention of imperialism, the socialist countries would not have been as militarized, with the inherently repressive quality of a rigid militarized society. On the other hand, we have now learned from history the level of war that the capitalist will exercise to destroy incipient socialism. This creates a profound dilemma for those who really want to make socialism , not just dream and talk about it. For democracy is fundamental to socialism, yet so is physical survival fundamental to socialism. In the first, historical march to socialism, the bourgeoisie were able to force the socialist societies down to a bourgeois level , by waging the fiercest wars in the history of humanity against socialism. Next time the task falls to the working classes in the capitalist countries to keep the imperialist monke! y off of the backs of the national liberation and socialist revolutions; and to the revolutionaries to some how combine the opposites of democracy and military preparedness. The experience and success of Cuba is valuable in the latter project.