Socialism

Socialism: the Goal, the Paths and the Compass

by Michael A. Lebowitz
[Presentation of “El Socialismo no Cae del Cielo: Un Neuvo Comienzo” at the 2010 Havana Book Fair, 18 February 2010.]

‘There’s an old saying that if you don’t know where you want to go, any road
will take you there. As I’ve said on many occasions, this saying is
mistaken. If you don’t know where you want to go, no road will take you
there. In other words, you need an understanding of the goal. You need a
vision for the future.

Marx had a very clear vision. It was a vision of a society which would
permit the full development of human beings — a society which allowed
everyone to develop their potential.

And, that would occur not because of gifts from above but, rather, as a result of the activity of human beings.

This was his concept of revolutionary practice — the simultaneous changing
of circumstances and human activity or self change.

Human development and practice — this “key link” in Marx reminds us that there are always two products as the result of our activity, the change in circumstances and the change in people themselves.

It reminds us that what Marx called rich human beings, socialist human beings, produce themselves only through their own activity.

The Goal

The Bolivarian Constitution of Venezuela incorporates this concept.

It stresses that the goal of society must be the full development of every
human being and that participation and protagonism is “the necessary way of
achieving the involvement to ensure their complete development, both
individual and collective.”

In 2007, President Chavez of Venezuela reinforced this vision by introducing what he called “the elementary triangle of socialism.”

Social ownership of the means of production, social production organized by workers and production for social needs and purposes make up this triangle.

Firstly, social ownership of the means of production is the way to ensure
that our communal, social productivity is directed to the free development
of all rather than used to satisfy the private goals of capitalists, groups
of producers, or state bureaucrats.

Secondly, social production organized by workers permits workers to develop their capacities by combining thinking and doing in the workplace and, thus, to produce not only things but also themselves as self-conscious collective producers.

Thirdly, satisfaction of social needs and purposes is the necessary goal of
productive activity in the new society because it substitutes for the focus
upon self-interest and selfishness an orientation to the needs of others
and relations based upon solidarity.

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The Bullet Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 315 February 20, 2010

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