Building a Revolutionary Far Left, by Rick Gunderman

The success or failure of the community socialist movement is entirely dependent upon avoiding sectarianism. Unlike old movements which failed because of factionalism, the community socialist movement seeks to unite all socialists and win over social democrats, liberals, and even conservatives and fascists, with lucid, well-thought-out arguments. We will build a movement for open, direct democracy; ownerless workers’ control of their workplace; and the legalization of all activity affecting only the individual.

This alone means that left authoritarians and right libertarians will be immediately skeptical of community socialism, as well as the right authoritarians. The right libertarians will immediately reject community socialism purely because of the latter part of the noun. The left authoritarians will reject it based on its libertarian principles, calling it “disorganized” or “unscientific”.

In fact, community socialism is both scientific and economical.

Community socialist theory is divided into four major segments: economic, political, social and civil.

The economics of socialism counter that of capitalism. Hence, understanding capitalism is necessary to understanding socialism.

On the most basic level, capitalism works microeconomically in the workplace. The workers produce on the owners’ property and the owner reaps the benefits.

The paradigm between socialism and capitalism is that labour is the only thing that produces value. What is left over after the cost of production is the value of the labour. The equation for this is such: A-B=C where A is the gross value of the product after labour is applied, B is the cost of production (energy, raw materials, etc.) and C is the value of labour.

We can apply this equation to the manufacturing of clothing. Hypothetically, we can say that the value of B is 5: five dollars worth of cotton is required for one t-shirt. The value of the t-shirt after it is transformed from cotton into the garment after labour is applied is twenty. A=20. The value of C is A-B. 20-5=15. If a worker makes five t-shirts in one hour, then the equation is E(A-B=C)D, where D represents the rate of production and E represents the total value of labour for the given period. In this case, (20-5=15)5, or (15)5. The total value of labour for one hour is, therefore, $75.

Under capitalism, an extension on this equation is required. Once E is achieved, there is a G to figure out – G is the final product received by the producer. The factor F is the profit factor. The equation is therefore E-F=G. F is what the owner takes. In the case of the garment worker, suppose that the owner hired him or her to work for ten dollars an hour. That $75 is reduced to $10, and that $65 per hour goes right to the owner.

Profit is not involved in the production process at all. The owner feeds off of the labour of the workers and does nothing but manipulate money for their own benefit. This has no benefit to the producers. The producers have been stripped of the value of their production, and have therefore also been stripped of every bit of respect from the owners.

The owners are called in old socialist terminology the “bourgeoisie”, and in community socialist terms the “possessing class”, “capitalist class”, or simply “the owners”. Their producers, their human beings turned into instruments of production by the capitalist system, are called collectively the “proletariat” in older terminology, or the “working class”, or simply “the workers”.

Workers are not just those working in manufacturing. Retail and other services can use the same equation.

Class in the modern capitalist world is defined largely by personal wealth, largely by income. This is a distortion of the nature of “class”, which is defined classically by a person’s relation to their production. In feudal Europe, the owner was the lord and the worker was the serf. Few has changed since then: only that now the serf can become the lord. But this does not make the duchy fair or democratic.

It is not just manual labourers that are workers. By the classical definition, the working class can include steelworkers, miners, longshoremen and transport workers, but also doctors, lawyers, teachers and scientists: all those who must sell their labour to the owners to make a living

Socialism is simply the removal of “E-F=G”. Instead, it only leaves E, the full product of labour, for the labourer. The owners need the workers, but the workers don’t need the owner.

A socialist society will thus recognize the hardest workers as well as those in the most valuable industries. It will not spawn as society of “everybody earn(ing) the same”, the way the capitalist pundits spuriously suppose.

If socialist can all agree that their primary goal should be to eliminate the owners from the productive process, then they can agree on this proclamation:

Any details about the construction of a post-capitalist society after a community socialist revolution can involve a wide variety of different methods and theories.

Socialists, social democrats, syndicalists, collectivist and communist anarchists, Trotskyists, Marxist, left communists and so many more can all come together to fight for the collapse of capitalism and the construction of a socialist country where the locality will decide on which means of socialism they wish to adopt. One town may be anarchist communist, while the next one could be syndicalist.

Socialists must also unite behind community democracy, a theoretical political structure based on direct democracy. Community democracy would work as such: every neighbourhood, city block and apartment floor will be organized into a local council where every single member participates and votes. They would select from among them a delegate for their community council, a federation of neighbourhood councils. Decisions in the neighbourhood councils would be made by all members democratically, and the decisions of the community councils would be made in the neighbourhood councils. All community delegates will collect the totals of their neighbourhood councils’ votes and combine them at the community council.

This trend will continue: provincial delegates will only submit their constituents’ total votes and combine them in the provincial council. The regional, federal, municipal and any other level will function this way.

This is a form of council-based, direct democracy and is something that most socialists should be able to agree on.

The point of contention in the community socialist movement will likely be the libertarianism of community socialism.

On one hand are the authoritarian leftists, included among them are the likes of Lenin, Stalin, Mao and others. It is important to note that community socialism does not outright reject the theories or ideas of any other socialist: the analysis that Lenin provided on imperialism and capitalism is invaluable to the far left. Nevertheless, he has been quoted by Emma Goldman as having said that freedom of speech can be limited following the revolution. Of course, it cannot be.

On the other hand is the authoritarian right, a side that one could dub the “natural enemies” of community socialists, as they take polarized views on political philosophy.

The authoritarian right has time and again tried to institutionalize their morality based on Judeo-Christian values. Community socialist theory is clear on this: any attempt to institutionalize morality is oppressive, as morality is an individual matter.

Community socialists, as members of the libertarian left, offer this alternative: all people should be able to direct their lives as they so choose with the sole stipulation that it not interfere with the safety, security or liberty of another.

The community socialist is in reality a coalition of the revolutionary libertarian left that unites based on these tenets:

-Individual liberty and self-determination for all people.

-An ownerless economy based on workers’ councils at each workplace.

-Independence of cultural expression for all ethnic, linguistic, racial, religious and cultural minorities.

-Direct democracy based on decisions flowing from the local, participatory neighbourhood councils upwards.

These four beliefs are all that are required to count oneself among the community socialists. The finer details of a post-capitalist society beyond what the above four beliefs specify would be figured out in each community. Anarchist communism may dominate the South-Eastern Ontario countryside, whereas the cities of Atlantic Canada may work on an anarchist-collectivist basis.

Community socialism is flexible and allows a wide variety of views. Community socialists reject Leninist “democratic centralism”, favouring a more Luxemburg-inspired system where “freedom is always the freedom of dissenters”.

It is interesting that modern preconceptions of what “revolution” means are polarized between two camps: the peaceful and the violent. Respectively, one can count Mahatma Gandhi and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on one side and Che Guevara and Malcolm X on the other.

Community socialists don’t see revolution in such a starkly contrasting light. We see revolution simply as the pursuit of an overthrow of the current system followed by a new order to replace the old one. This can be done peacefully or violently.

Hopefully, a community socialist revolution can occur peacefully. The preferred method among community socialists for realizing the revolution is to organize all people into workers’ and neighbourhood councils and to declare their sovereignty over their workplaces and communities, effectively kicking out the old government.

For really, what is government but a band of elite human beings who claim power over a defined territory? The governments of the United States, Canada, France, the United Kingdom, China, India, Egypt, Brazil…this is one of the few standards among all governments. As human beings, their power is as opposable and fragile as that of a domineering father or authoritarian teacher. The people can break free of this power and build a new order based around their power.

I am confident that community socialism will appeal not only to those already on the revolutionary libertarian left, but all those disillusioned with job losses, falling quality of education, militarism, government elitism, crime, poverty and overall social alienation.

Only libertarian socialism allows every individual to decide upon and follow his or her own path in life. Through community socialism, such a society can come into existence.

~ by redrising on April 29, 2008.