Background
Historical Materialism
Dialectic
Dialectical Materialism
Revolution
In the last few posts we established an argument for the dialectical material development of history in the direction in which the contradictions of Capitalism may lead to a worker's revolution that would overthrow the current system to replace it with a new one. But what is that new system?
To rephrase the question, what would a world, where worker's have overthrown the institution of private property to take over the means of production and started working on it themselves without needing a capitalist class, would look like?
In simple terms it would be a world where worker labour together, not because they have to earn wages to survive but because they actually want to do that work, to create the human life. I.E. a world where people can come together as a community and work (and live)for themselves and others, instead of stepping on each other. This is Communism.
So a communist society is one where the paradigm of human life shifts from making money for a living to, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need". Where you contribute the best you can through your labour and skills to create stuff for everyone else. And since everyone else follows this paradigm, therefore your needs get taken care off as well. And to achieve that, all natural resources required to build human life are held in common by the collective.
According to Marx, a Communist society is characterized by three things. It's a stateless, moneyless and classless society. Let's go over these.
Stateless- In Marx's ideal world, the need for a state or a government is overcome because it is ultimately an institution to control the masses, restricts their true freedom and subjects them to work for the benefit of a privelaged class.
Classless- This means no social inequality. No sense of inherent superiority or inferiority among the people. A factory worker could live the same dignified life as a doctor or a manager, both materially and socially.
Moneyless- As money based economy forms the basis on which the Capitalist class holds ownership over the means of production. Once that is overcome money would stop being the golden goose that drives labour and economy. Emancipation for workers is emancipation from the power of money.
..............
Historical Materialism
Dialectic
Dialectical Materialism
Revolution
In the last few posts we established an argument for the dialectical material development of history in the direction in which the contradictions of Capitalism may lead to a worker's revolution that would overthrow the current system to replace it with a new one. But what is that new system?
To rephrase the question, what would a world, where worker's have overthrown the institution of private property to take over the means of production and started working on it themselves without needing a capitalist class, would look like?
In simple terms it would be a world where worker labour together, not because they have to earn wages to survive but because they actually want to do that work, to create the human life. I.E. a world where people can come together as a community and work (and live)for themselves and others, instead of stepping on each other. This is Communism.
So a communist society is one where the paradigm of human life shifts from making money for a living to, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need". Where you contribute the best you can through your labour and skills to create stuff for everyone else. And since everyone else follows this paradigm, therefore your needs get taken care off as well. And to achieve that, all natural resources required to build human life are held in common by the collective.
According to Marx, a Communist society is characterized by three things. It's a stateless, moneyless and classless society. Let's go over these.
Stateless- In Marx's ideal world, the need for a state or a government is overcome because it is ultimately an institution to control the masses, restricts their true freedom and subjects them to work for the benefit of a privelaged class.
Classless- This means no social inequality. No sense of inherent superiority or inferiority among the people. A factory worker could live the same dignified life as a doctor or a manager, both materially and socially.
Moneyless- As money based economy forms the basis on which the Capitalist class holds ownership over the means of production. Once that is overcome money would stop being the golden goose that drives labour and economy. Emancipation for workers is emancipation from the power of money.
..............
For the sake of brevity I decided to spoiler this line of reasoning. This is a fun hypothetical besides the main post.
Let's say 100 construction workers have the manpower and skills between them to build anything from apartment buildings to luxury condos. But we see that in many instances they cannot even afford to own those things themselves. How is it possible that you cannot afford to own something that is created from your own hands? Why can't those 100 workers build apartments for their own families? Let's say that even if they pool all their resources, they still won't have enough to buy the land needed to build it. Or the means to afford all the tools/machines/material required for construction.
But where are these tools/machines/materials coming from? They are made by other workers! Who sometimes themselves cannot afford those apartments, even though their work is creating the things needed to build them. And ultimately all raw resources come from nature, which itself is mined by workers.
So what would happen if all these workers whose work is absolutely necessary to create buildings (but many of whom cannot even afford proper homes) decide to overthrow this system which alienates the land, natural resources and their own labour from them?
The 100 construction workers can then decide to work to build apartments for themselves on their own violation. Let's say they acquire the land, but they still need resources and finished products. So they can make a deal with the cement factory workers, miners etc. and make liveable apartments/houses for them too. All of them need food ofcourse. So the construction workers may build houses for the agricultural workers as well.
We can see here a worker collective forming. "From each according to his ability to each according to his need" in live action. We already have something like this in Capitalism under the gambit of exchange based commodity markets. Wherein you work to earn money by creating something for others. And use that money to buy commodities made from other people's work. The problem is that under this system a lot of human labour is directed to serve the luxuries of few instead of the needs/wants of all.
Let's say 100 construction workers have the manpower and skills between them to build anything from apartment buildings to luxury condos. But we see that in many instances they cannot even afford to own those things themselves. How is it possible that you cannot afford to own something that is created from your own hands? Why can't those 100 workers build apartments for their own families? Let's say that even if they pool all their resources, they still won't have enough to buy the land needed to build it. Or the means to afford all the tools/machines/material required for construction.
But where are these tools/machines/materials coming from? They are made by other workers! Who sometimes themselves cannot afford those apartments, even though their work is creating the things needed to build them. And ultimately all raw resources come from nature, which itself is mined by workers.
So what would happen if all these workers whose work is absolutely necessary to create buildings (but many of whom cannot even afford proper homes) decide to overthrow this system which alienates the land, natural resources and their own labour from them?
The 100 construction workers can then decide to work to build apartments for themselves on their own violation. Let's say they acquire the land, but they still need resources and finished products. So they can make a deal with the cement factory workers, miners etc. and make liveable apartments/houses for them too. All of them need food ofcourse. So the construction workers may build houses for the agricultural workers as well.
We can see here a worker collective forming. "From each according to his ability to each according to his need" in live action. We already have something like this in Capitalism under the gambit of exchange based commodity markets. Wherein you work to earn money by creating something for others. And use that money to buy commodities made from other people's work. The problem is that under this system a lot of human labour is directed to serve the luxuries of few instead of the needs/wants of all.
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