In "Section 2: Imagining Socialism," Psychotherapists Harriet Fraad and Tess Fraad-Wolff ("Personal, Emotional, and Sexual Life Without Capitalism") ask that we "imagine eliminating capitalist profits from our health care...[and] a nation that emphasizes preventative care to spare us illness."
They ask that we imagine living in an America where success is "measured by efficiency in producing kindness to each other rather than efficiency in producing more profit for the rich." The rewarding of "kindness and fairness" marginalizes the "clever" person, as this way of thinking recognizes such an individual as "sneaky and dishonest.
To quote human rights activist and veteran of the Black Liberation Movement, Ajamu Baraka from his essay, "Socialism Is the Highest Expression of Human Rights," "education would go beyond training people for employment and help them develop critical consciousness and an anti-oppression perspective so they are better able to control their own destinies." Imagine this kind of education that emphasizes "kindness and fairness"? The poor and ill, as Fraad and Fraad-Wolff see it, would not be asked to "worry about money" ("Personal, Emotional") when seeking health care. "Imagine our medical personnel taking lots of time to get to know us so to get to know us so they can better understand why we got sick."
In a socialist society, writes Dave Lindorff, investigative reporter,
a parent with a sick baby could go straight to the doctor, or in an emergency, to the hospital. The baby wouldn't be at risk of suffering through something potentially life- threatening, and the parents wouldn't have to face the financial anxiety of deciding to see a doctor--or suffer the guilt of not seeing one. ("Socialized Medicine Means Everyone Gets Care, Regardless of Whether They Have Money")
Returning
to Fraad and Fraad-Wolff, ("Personal, Emotional"), we are asked
to consider our emotional health. Think of a sturdy table, they ask.
The first leg of our table would represent our "intimate personal
life with a partner, sometimes children, very close friends, and
family members;" the second, our relations to community; the third
leg, our "sense of hope and security that comes from knowing we
have opportunities to make a living and improve our lives"; and
finally, the fourth leg, representing our table represents "the
trust and friendship felt in egalitarian societies where people
assume that we're all in this life together as equals."
Under capitalism, our proverbial tables are wobbly rather than sturdy.
" Increasingly
repressive," writes activists and authors, Mumia Abu-Jamal and
Angela Davis, capitalists system "is the logical inheritance of its
racist, hierarchical, exploitative past--a reactive formation to
attempts to transform, democratize, and socialize it"
("Alternatives to the Present System of Capitalist Injustice").
The enactment of "'abolition democracy,'" the authors argue, will
focus on the "abolition of institutions" catering to the
domination "of one group over another." Laws, as created to
facilitate the inhumane activities of the capitalists will no longer
exist. "Human relations will become regulated more by custom, as
they once were before the advent of class society," writes Michael
Steven Smith, attorney and author ("Law in A Socialist USA").
Imagine,
as does educator Bill Ayers in his essay, ("Teach Freedom"),
schools in the US "teaching toward freedom and democracy...based on
a common faith in the incalculable value of every human being and the
principle that the fullest development of all is the condition for
the full development of each, and conversely, that the fullest
development of each is the condition for the development of all."
Currently, our schools are on the verge of representing "German
schools" in the early 20th
Century.
That system while producing "excellent scientists, athletes,
artists, and intellectuals," also produced "submission and
conformity, moral blindness, obtuse patriotism--and people for whom
a pathway straight into the furnaces for some of their fellow
citizens seemed acceptable."
Imagine
"emancipated from the rigid hierarchies and mental slavery these
institutions have imposed," writes musician and author Mat
Callahan, and "art and art-making" is freed to "enjoy a
renaissance" ("Imagining Art After Capitalism"). The value of
art will cease to be based on economics. "Money will no longer be
the motive or criteria for making art--and its aesthetic,
educational, and imaginative value will be restored to preeminence."
Callahan continues:
art may eventually cease to be a separate and distinct category and instead be woven into the fabric of social life: not only might everyone join in, but the beautiful and imaginative might become the purpose of what anyone does.
The socialist alternative to capitalism, the kind these activists, thinkers, and writers seek, is not what we have seen and experienced in the modern world. As Marxist economist and teacher Rick Wolff explains, it is not about replacing capitalism with state ownership, what developed in the Soviet Union. There and in Eastern Europe, he writers, exploitation remained "intact inside state enterprises." The result: the conversion of these enterprises "into private enterprises" and the dismantling of "planning in favor of markets." What collapsed was an "exploitative system." "[That system did not and does not represent the only model of socialism." A truly socialist system, however, focusing on "the internal organization of enterprises " and insisting on "a radically different way of organizing the production, appropriation, and distribution of the enterprise's surplus," and "making the major decisions governing the enterprise's activities," will result in a democratically organized socialism. Wolff argues:
in democratically organized socialist enterprises, the direct workers would function collectively as the board of directors, strongly influenced by the auxiliary workers. Instead of workers (the majority) being ruled and exploited by boards and major shareholders--a small minority--the workers would make the crucial economic decisions and decide how to distribute the money their work brought in. ("The Shape of A Post-Capitalist Future")
What socialism is not--is the de-valuing of human life. As Wolff explains, the transition of "workers' self-directed enterprises" would also "transform cultural life."
An end to enslavement and communities of worker-cooperatives! An end to exploitation and an abundance of based resources, kindness and fairness. An end to an increasingly repressive system and a rise of workers, thinkers, artists. Workers' self-directed workplaces. Just institutions. Ecosystems sustaining the life of Mother Earth.
How do we get there? We need to reflect on the things that we do, consciously or unconsciously, to contribute to the problems we face today. We need to reflect on those things that have become mechanical, those things that have become embedded in our DNA.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
