The best things you can do to advance Socialism personally is to get organized and read theory. Join a union, party, or other working class org, and do your best to study Leftist theory and historical applications of theory so we can learn from what worked well, improve what almost worked well, and prevent making the same mistakes.
If you want to get started, I have an introductory Marxist reading list.
🚫 Tax the rich and redistribute some of their wealth
👉 Gulag the rich and redistribute all of their wealth
And set them on fire when they can't work in the gulag anymore.
You do realize that 'the means of production' are all in China right now?
Not all of the means of production, but most of the means of industrial production.
Are the pharmaceuticals, health care, transportation, technology, and information industries not means to be seized?
China may produce the bulk of the physical products we use, but we produce thought and systems capitalists use for the benifut of the few. The means are for the many imo
And the means of means of production is in Mexico
Gottem!
No, its not in gottem. I checked a few months ago
( gottem is a place in belgium: https://maps.app.goo.gl/9qFUiUz46K1m4bNm6 )
Suppose we replace all capitalists with worker cooperatives. What happens when two worker cooperatives compete in free market? We'll still be at capitalism, wont we?
Good question!
Under Marxist analysis, kinda, essentially. Worker cooperatives change the relation from Proletarian/bourgeois to entirely Petite Bourgeoisie. The worker-owners of each firm are, by ownership, more interested in their own firm's success than the success of the broader economy. This is the main critique of Market Socialism from a Marxian analysis.
Now, that doesn't mean Market Socialism isn't an improvement on Capitalism, it certainly helps reduce exploitation, but you don't actually gain the benefits of collectivized ownership and common planning that allows Humanity to truly take mastery over Capital. The benefits of moving from competition to cooperation is massive.
Realistically, cooperatives can serve as a good basis of a transitional Socialist state, alongside traditional markets and a robust public sector, as long as strong central planning is employed and gradually the cooperatives and traditional private firms are folded into the Public Sector over time as they develop to the level that public ownership and planning becomes more efficient than market forces.
Thanks, Cowbee! It seems to me, that in practice (as opposed to theory, not game), if socialism is 5 steps away on the chessboard, then market socialism has to be step 1, simply because that's where we are (1. markets aren't going away tomorrow, and 2. everyone currently has to engage in the economy one way or another). It's what is the 'adjacent next'. Changing everyone's minds all at once seems mathematically impossible. I guess what I'm trying to say is that it is possible that all our collective energies might be better spent focusing on just step 1.
Workers coops is still capitalism since it is still about maximizing profits for them. Socialism is when the means of productions are own for everyone through nationalization, and through a Marxist Leninist party.
What would that look like in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania?
It starts with mass worker organization, usually a nation-wide revolutionary party allying with local worker unions and other organizations. Eventually, the working class becomes well-organized and politically aware, and the contradictions between the organized working class and the Capitalists sharpen, resulting in revolution. What follows is a replacement of the existing State with the organizations built up by the working class, and the beginning of conscious planning in production taking priority over the competition of markets in driving the economy.
That is a massive oversimplification, though.
Don't you know that we shouldn't question the wisdom of dead white guys, ever?
Both, both is good
Y'all already got a computer, now go produce the next facebook or amazon.
Bit of a non-sequitor to compare individual production to large, mass-scale corporations, no? People are suggesting changing ownership from private to public and producing along a common plan for the common good, rather than the profits of a few individuals.
i already own my tools though.
Production by individuals does provide a chance to get ahead, but ultimately individuals cannot compete with massive corporations that fill every crack and crevice available. It makes more sense to try to work towards cooperative production along a common plan as production itself becomes more complicated and large-scale.
