RGacky3
14th September 2011, 09:28
A: Near Impossible to impliment:
people love pointing to European social democracies as proof that you don't need revolution for socialist policies, if you look at history however, you'll see that social-democracis and the welfare state came about AFTER strong unions, radical strikes, communist parties and so on, lots and lots of civil unrest and workers actions, people did'nt just vote for hte labor or socialist party and then things were fine, they fought and they fought hard and damn near had revolutions.
B: Extremely Easy to strip down:
Welfare states across Europe (with a few exceptions) have strippred down a lot of their welfare system, privatized, and attacked unions, why? Because Welfare Capitalism still gives people the ability to amass lots of private capital, sure, a lot slower perhaps, and a let less extreme, but lots of private capital always = politica power for various reasons, and they will use that power to strip down welfare state brakes to their accumulation,
Now some might say "well what about direct democracy," to get a functioning direct democracy you'll need a revolutoin, there is no way the ruling class would allow, that, even with direct democracy if a minority still controls most of hte capital, they will still be able to force through things, such as threatening capital flight.
C: Does'nt address contradictions in capitalism: I does nothing to change the basic structure of capitalism, i.e. capitalist controls and worker produces, it does not introduce democracy to the economy, it does'nt change the fact that capitalism will always collapse on itself due to purpetual profits, surplus production and continual shift to fixed capital. So it will ultimatelly suffer the same problems as regular Capitalism.
D: Is very costly: Without nationalization of productive industry, or workers control, the only way to do this is lots of taxes, then your gonna have a huge conflict between those who don't want to be taxed and those who want social programs, ultimately the people with money who dont want to be taxed generally win, so the government has 2 options, cut social programs or borrow, generally they borrow.
Here are juts some problems.
Now don't get me wrong I am not against working social democracy, its better than capitalism, but its not the end point, social democracy is'nt good enough, we need workers control of the workplaces, and democratic control of the economy.
Tax and welfare is doomed to fail and we've seen it all over Europe, other than really a couple countries, the countries where it has'nt failed are ones who's social democracy is'nt just tax and welfare, its the ones that nationalized financial institutions and productive industry (meaning put it under democractic control) or the ones with extremely strong unions and/or policies of workers control of hte work place. But even that is'nt enough, and ultimately I don't think those policies will cut it. We need to work towards fully dismanteling capitalism.
That does'nt mean abolishin all markets necessarily, or all property, it means that the means of production goes to the workers, and major economic institutions are subject to public accountability.
Your not gonna get there by voting in social democracies, or by utopian "system building" (trying to figure out how to build the perfectly balanced system of whatever), your gonna get there by challenging and attacking capitalism AND the capitalist state structure every where it is, and by organizing workplaces and communities to fight power structures.
Hell, even if you juts want co-determination and some socialization, your not gonna get it unless you fight to take the whole pie.
people love pointing to European social democracies as proof that you don't need revolution for socialist policies, if you look at history however, you'll see that social-democracis and the welfare state came about AFTER strong unions, radical strikes, communist parties and so on, lots and lots of civil unrest and workers actions, people did'nt just vote for hte labor or socialist party and then things were fine, they fought and they fought hard and damn near had revolutions.
B: Extremely Easy to strip down:
Welfare states across Europe (with a few exceptions) have strippred down a lot of their welfare system, privatized, and attacked unions, why? Because Welfare Capitalism still gives people the ability to amass lots of private capital, sure, a lot slower perhaps, and a let less extreme, but lots of private capital always = politica power for various reasons, and they will use that power to strip down welfare state brakes to their accumulation,
Now some might say "well what about direct democracy," to get a functioning direct democracy you'll need a revolutoin, there is no way the ruling class would allow, that, even with direct democracy if a minority still controls most of hte capital, they will still be able to force through things, such as threatening capital flight.
C: Does'nt address contradictions in capitalism: I does nothing to change the basic structure of capitalism, i.e. capitalist controls and worker produces, it does not introduce democracy to the economy, it does'nt change the fact that capitalism will always collapse on itself due to purpetual profits, surplus production and continual shift to fixed capital. So it will ultimatelly suffer the same problems as regular Capitalism.
D: Is very costly: Without nationalization of productive industry, or workers control, the only way to do this is lots of taxes, then your gonna have a huge conflict between those who don't want to be taxed and those who want social programs, ultimately the people with money who dont want to be taxed generally win, so the government has 2 options, cut social programs or borrow, generally they borrow.
Here are juts some problems.
Now don't get me wrong I am not against working social democracy, its better than capitalism, but its not the end point, social democracy is'nt good enough, we need workers control of the workplaces, and democratic control of the economy.
Tax and welfare is doomed to fail and we've seen it all over Europe, other than really a couple countries, the countries where it has'nt failed are ones who's social democracy is'nt just tax and welfare, its the ones that nationalized financial institutions and productive industry (meaning put it under democractic control) or the ones with extremely strong unions and/or policies of workers control of hte work place. But even that is'nt enough, and ultimately I don't think those policies will cut it. We need to work towards fully dismanteling capitalism.
That does'nt mean abolishin all markets necessarily, or all property, it means that the means of production goes to the workers, and major economic institutions are subject to public accountability.
Your not gonna get there by voting in social democracies, or by utopian "system building" (trying to figure out how to build the perfectly balanced system of whatever), your gonna get there by challenging and attacking capitalism AND the capitalist state structure every where it is, and by organizing workplaces and communities to fight power structures.
Hell, even if you juts want co-determination and some socialization, your not gonna get it unless you fight to take the whole pie.