From the Socialist Standard, September 2004. Unfortunately, democracy is one of those carelessly uttered words (like freedom, peace, love, justice etc.) that is constantly misused and prone to expedient adaptation. HL Mencken, for instance, mischievously declared: “Adultery is democracy applied to marriage.” Politically, however, its misuse is contemptuously cynical and rarely funny, so it...
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Socialism
Democracy as a way of life
WAS NOWHERE SOMEWHERE?
MORE’S UTOPIA AND THE MEANING OF SOCIALISM The word utopia, together with its derivatives utopian and utopianism, is a familiar part of our political vocabulary. It originated as the title of a work by the Tudor lawyer, statesman and writer Thomas More, first published in Latin in 1516 as a traveller’s description of a...
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Problems and Solutions
Socialism won’t be a problem-free society but it will allow problems to be dealt with rationally. Capitalism is a society beset by problems, from poverty, unemployment and homelessness to war, violence and insecurity. As the current recession shows, even those who consider themselves to be comfortably off and with a relatively ‘good’ job may...
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Marx’s Contribution to the Critique of Reformism
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, first published in 1859, only consists of two chapters (apart from its famous Preface). Marx had intended it to be the first installment in a massively ambitious project that was to include six separate “books” addressing, respectively, the topics of capital, landed property, wage labor, the...
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What is to be done?
As capitalism loses some of its legitimacy, what should those who want to get rid of capitalism be doing? After the battle of El Alamein, Churchill famously said “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”. In some ways,...
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Opium wars, old and new
The phrase “opium wars” usually refers to the British military assaults of 1839-42 and 1856-60 that forced the Chinese emperor to allow British merchants to sell his subjects opium. The opium was grown in India, where the tax revenue from its sale maintained the colonial administration. In 1839, imperial commissioner Lin Zexu wrote to...
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Capitalism in Crisis: Reforms, Collapse — Or a Socialist Revolution?
The severe economic crisis has dominated newspaper headlines – day after day for at least the past six months – like no other story in recent history. The massive layoffs, losses and bankruptcies have grown as familiar as the daily death-count in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ranks of the unemployed are overflowing and...
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Five more benefits of not having money
We continue describing how things could be like in a socialist society, where there would be no need for money. 1. Environment Bear in mind the aim here is an excursion into the benefits of money totally disappearing from our lives; for all to have access to the necessities of life and in return...
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Robert Owen: paternalist utopian
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the death of Robert Owen. The Owenites introduced the word “socialism” but Owen himself always opposed the class struggle. Owen’s key idea, indeed perhaps his only one, was: “Man’s character is made for and not by him”. He thought that it was therefore possible to give a...
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Which Way, Workers?
From the Western Socialist, July, 1947 Throughout the world today, working men and women are planning, discussing, organizing in trade unions, demonstrating and supporting political groups, all with a view to improving their social conditions. In some countries, they have had the right to vote for many years, and have been instrumental in the...
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