The Principles of Socialism

international | anti-capitalism | other press Thursday June 30, 2005 15:27 by Archie Kennedy

A Different set of Tracks

It is very likely that the hour is late, that capitalism will soon perish. It will happen sooner or later and if it does happen sooner, we have to be prepared. We need to debate the principles of our coming revolution; the principles of socialism.

Socialism must be based in natural human needs, wants, and human development.

It is natural that parents care for the needs of their children. As children grow, they develop from self centered need gratification to community connection, which is a fundamental human need. Community connection proceeds from the service of the self to the self to the service to others. Service to others may mean at one level, service to the individual’s own children and family or it may extend to working in the community to meet the needs of others.

This developmental process should be the basis of socialist development because it is natural to human beings. Socialist principles should never be based on principles that are alien to the natural inclinations of human beings.

We are born with nothing but needs and if we die of old age, we die with nothing but needs. Through the process of life, we will optimally develop if we proceed through self centered need gratification and expand our perspective to the needs of others. Through self centeredness, children learn to appreciate the wants and needs of human beings. As we grow and if we have children, we learn that their needs are more important than our own. If we don’t have children, we still learn that the needs of other people are more important than our own through other means besides parenting.

Human adult happiness can be achieved through one thing only. It is achieved when we genuinely place the needs, happiness and well being of other people above our own. The human individual that is stuck in selfishness is truly important from a socialist point of view because he is suffering more than more developed human beings. And from the socialist point of view, who suffers most is most important.

One problem with the capitalist stage of social development has been that those same individuals that suffer in the cage of selfishness that deserve our compassion, have taken complete control of our societies. It is as if the children have taken control of the household.

Capitalist societies must be put on notice. Legislation must be pushed through capitalist parliaments that if capitalist control of government does not serve the needs of the people, then socialist control of government will take place. In other words, the adults will take control of the household.

Criteria should be developed with this in mind. That is, criteria that measures human misery. Should human misery fall below a certain level on quantitative and qualitative measures, then socialists will replace capitalistic lawmakers on national and preferably international levels and form a revolutionary new socialist government with the following principles as its foundation.

That society functions on the bases of the needs of the community.

That the needs of the community are assessed with the most needy individual deemed as the highest priority.

The needs of the public are deemed the highest priority.

Production is based on the needs of the community.

Distribution and trade is based on the needs of the community.

Ownership and control of natural resources is in the hands of the community.

Ownership and control of the wealth created by labour rests in the hands of the community.

Ownership and control of the community rests in the hands of all members of the community.

Community leadership is based on service to the needs of the community.

Socialist societies will be fundamentally different in one single fundamental respect at first; that the ownership and control of natural resources rests in the hands of the community.

Socialist societies will evolve through achieving ownership and control of industry placed first in the hands of nation based community control. Control will devolve to the local community as expediently as is practical.

The process of transformation from the private sphere to the public sphere is accomplished through cooperation and agreement wherever possible.

Early socialist societies will maintain the same institutions, businesses, infrastructure, and liberal legal principles as late capitalist societies. The legal principles that are contrary to socialist principles will be abolished.

The institutions created through private ownership be initially maintained and assessed for value to the community.

Where capitalistic incentives are needed for under-developed individuals and communities, the community will hold strict control over production, trade, and the relationship between private bosses and workers.

Where capitalistic incentives are needed for under-developed individuals or communities, the coercive nature and threat posed by those individuals and communities is openly and frankly discussed in public forums.

Practical steps are taken to prevent those same individuals from manipulating wealth and community control for their own benefit.

In all cases where capitalist incentive mechanisms are needed, they will be on a temporary basis.

In all cases where capitalist incentive mechanisms are needed, workers will be organized in democracy based unions outside of the control of the owners.

Control of both natural resources and industry will devolve to the community where industries are located.

That trade between communities is coordinated and based on community needs.

Individuals work is not forced.

Individuals should work in accordance with the needs of the community.

Work direction is based in community needs.

Work initiative is based in crass goal achievement for those in lower stages of psychological development.

Work initiatives are based in self centered needs for youth with the recognition that self centeredness is valuable and necessary for youth to develop.

Control of work is based in the individual’s willingness and ability to take initiative and ownership of the problem of community needs.

Workers that carry out, facilitate and coordinate trade between communities are included and welcomed while they are away from their home community.

Communities will assist other communities where trade or production development is difficult or slow. Trade should focus on the needs of the community but also on the needs of foreign communities.

State control of criminality will evolve toward social and community control.

State control of all institutions will evolve toward community control.

State control will evolve toward community control; community control will evolve toward family control and toward no control. Individual emancipation from state coercion is a fundamental goal of socialism.

Socialist societies will develop toward the abolition of the state.

The socialist state will adhere to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of media, and people will not require payment for information. Information will be free and unfettered.

Repressive state forces will be in formed only in the case where tyranny and oppression must be curtailed. Authority, whether it is the authority of a parent or a teacher or police, will never be abused. If it is abused, the authority will be removed by the state from the individual, the body or organization.

Discrimination against human beings will be eliminated through education and in severe cases of organized hate, through legal sanctions that are aimed against tyranny.

The education of educators and medical professionals will be a priority in all communities. These skills and resources will be shared and developed according to need.

Vital needs shall never require a charge of money. This includes and is not restricted to housing, food, medicine, medical care, or anything else where its absence may result in the death of an individual.

Technological development will be enhanced through the development of community awards and grants and through the development of incentives to individuals and communities.
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The great sweep of history, from the communism of hunter gatherer societies to early tribal societies and all its developments to late tribal societies to early feudal societies and its developments to late feudal societies to early capitalist societies and through those developments we now emerge, seated within the historical context of late capitalism; aware of the sweep of history.

It has become increasingly obvious that capitalism has developed and has become not capitalism but monopolism. The state and private business are married and stand over and above societies. These powers have control of the societies and the individuals in them and together, they form an oppressive and alienating force.

The time is coming where we, the individuals that are members of various societies, must take the initiative to move from late capitalism to early socialism. Early socialism should and will look like late capitalism but at that point, we will have switched tracks. Our trajectory will have changed and we will be on the road to the abolition of the state, the complete abolition of capitalism, and the abolition of barbarism.