CHAPTER I

STATE COMMUNISM OR THE ASSOCIATION OF FREE AND EQUAL PRODUCERS

PART 3

Nationalisation and Socialisation

Although no one has left us with a detailed description of a communist society, the adoption of the viewpoint of Karl Marx, that this new mode of social production would in essence be an Association of Free and Equal Producers, and would come into being quite independently of the theories of Social Democrats, or even communists, seems a reasonable one. It is not the state which is conceived as being the leader and administrator of production and distribution, but far rather it is the producers and consumers themselves to whom these functions would fall.

The reformist school has in the course of years turned this theory completely upside down. The struggle for social reforms and the steady transformation of the various branches of industry into state or municipal enterprises meant for them a steady approach towards communism. Wherever capitalist development had brought any particular branch of production to such a degree of concentration that it could function as a unitary structure under central administration, then this would indicate that it was ripe for nationalisation. Whilst reformist Social Democracy conceived of realising communism through a continuous and gradual process of nationalisation, the revolutionary Bolshevik tendency considered that a revolution was necessary in order to complete the process of nationalisation. Thus the conception of the men from Moscow is based on fundamentally the same theoretical methods as that of the reformists. During and after the revolution those industrial units which have become ripe for nationalisation will be operated through the state, whilst that part of the economy which is not yet sufficiently concentrated will remain in the hands of private capital.

The Russian Revolution proceeded according to this scheme. In the year 1917 the producers in Russia began to expropriate the owning class throughout the whole economy, with the intention of ordering production and distribution according to communist principles. The process of expropriation began from below, to the great discomfiture of those who wished to lead and administer the economy from above. It was in this way that the Russian economic administration returned to their former owners many factories which had been expropriated by the workers, because they were considered not yet sufficiently "mature" for communist administration. The First All-Russian Congress of Economic Councils thereupon decreed the following decision:

"In the sphere of the organisation of production, it is necessary to introduce final measures of nationalisation. It is necessary to move forward from the implementation of nationalisation measures for separate enterprises (so far 304) to the consistent nationalisation of industry as a whole. Nationalisation must not be a matter of occasional expediency, and must be carried out only by the Supreme Council of Peoples' Commissars, with authorisation by the All-Russian Congress of Economic Councils."(8)

Here we see quite clearly the difference between nationalisation according to the Social Democratic ideal and the actual communist conception of socialisation.

In this we also see the distinction between industrial enterprises which are considered already ripe for communism and those which are not, a concept of which Marx apparently would never have dreamed. F. Oppenheimer has very correctly observed in the Symposium edited by H. Beck on 'Methods and Aims of Socialisation' :

"The illusion gains ground that the Marxist concept of 'socialisation' is being promoted step by step through the widespread characterisation of nationalisation or municipalisation of individual industrial enterprises as a form of socialisation. It is for this reason also that an otherwise incomprehensible and mysterious emphasis is placed upon 'mature enterprises ...'. For Marx, however, socialist society can become mature only as a whole. Separate industrial establishments or branches of such establishments can, according to him, just as little become 'mature' and 'ready for socialisation' as the separate organs of an embryo in the fourth month of pregnancy can become mature and be delivered to lead an independent existence."(9)

"What then becomes apparent is that this nationalisation can only lead to the construction of state socialism, in which the state emerges as a single vast employer and exploiter." (10)

The aim however should be not to restrict the energy of the masses, who themselves carry out the process of socialisation, but to incorporate them as living cells into the whole organism of communist economy - a development which, in its turn, becomes possible only if and when the appropriate general economic conditions are present. The creators of use-values are then able themselves to integrate their factories into the overall sphere of social production, and so to determine the basis of the relationship of the producers to the social product.

The only writer who, as far as we know, tries to speak the truth on matters of this kind is the reformist H. Cunow. He says:

"In the last analysis, it is nevertheless Marx's intention, in opposition to the Cobden School, that a fixed control of the economic process should be applied. Not, however, through the state, but through the unification of the free associations of the socialist society." (11)

In the section on "The Negation of the State and State Socialism", Cunow shows us how German Social Democracy came to desert this standpoint only gradually. At the beginning the movement opposed those tendencies which wished to bring large undertakings such as railways and mines under state administration. One example will suffice. On page 340 of the above-mentioned work we read how, in an article, W. Liebknecht expounded the view:

"It is intended gradually to nationalise one industrial enterprise after another. In other words, to replace the private employers with the state, to continue capitalist industry only with a different exploiter .. It (the state) appears as employer in the place of the private employers, and the workers gain nothing from this, although indeed the state has strengthened its power and its means of oppression ... The more bourgeois society comes to realise that it cannot defend itself for ever against the tide of socialist ideas, the more do we approach that moment at which state socialism is proclaimed in real earnest, and the last battle which Democracy has to fight out will be waged under the slogan: "Forward to Social Democracy, forward to State Socialism!" (12)

Cunow then demonstrates that this standpoint was already abandoned before 1900, and in 1917 K. Renner declared: "The state will become the lever of socialism" (See: Marxism, War and the International). Cunow is in full agreement with this, but it remains to his credit that he makes it fully clear that all this has nothing to do with Marx. Cunow makes it a matter of complaint against Marx that he made so sharp a distinction between state and society, which in his view does not exist, or at least is no longer a valid concept.

With their practice of nationalisation according to 'mature' industrial enterprises, such as has been implemented in Russia, the Bolsheviks have in reality given Marxism a slap in the face. Indeed, they have thereby transfered their allegiance to the social-democratic concept of the identity of state and society. In Russia, this practice is already making its results felt in the most oppressive way. Society does not hold control over the means of production and the production process. These are in the hands of the ruling clique, which appoints and administers everything "in the name of society" (Engels) ... . That is to say, they are in the position to suppress by hitherto unprecedented means each and every group or individual attempting to oppose the new form of exploitation. Russia, which should have been an example of communism, has by this means developed into the ideal of the social-democratic future.

We have dwelt at somewhat greater length upon this type of nationalisation in order to show that this has nothing in common with Marx, and that Marxism is in fact compromised thereby. It was especially after the experience of the Paris Commune that the view began to gain ground with Marx that the organisation of the economy could not be realised through the state but only through a combination of the Free Associations of the Socialist society. With the discovery of the precise forms by means of which the proletariat organises itself for revolutionary class struggle, for the conquest of economic and political power - the Workers' Councils - the historical foundations on the basis of which the society of freely associating producers must be historically constructed are brought to light and fully revealed for all to perceive and comprehend.

References

8. A. Goldschmidt: Die Wirtshaftsorganisation Sowjet-Russlands (The Economic Organisation of Soviet Russia), p.42.return to text
9. F. Oppenheimer, quoted by H. Beck: Sammelbuch tiber 'Wege und Ziel der Sozialisierung' (Symposium on 'Methods and Aims of Socialisation'), pp. 16-17.return to text
10. A. Pannekoek on "Socialisation" in Die nieuwe Tijd (New Times), 1919, p.534.return to text
11. H. Cunow: Die marx'sche Geschichts, Gesellschafts und Staatstheorie, Band 1 (The Marxist Theory of History, Society and the State, Vol 1), p.30.return to text
12. W. Liebknecht: Staatssozialismus und revolutionare Sozialdemokratie (State Socialism and Revolutionary Social Democracy) quoted by H. Cunow in Die marx'sche Geschichts, Gesellschafts und Staatstheorie, Band 1 (The Marxist Theory of History, Society and the State, Vol 1), p.340.return to text

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