What is Socialism?
by Gordon Schultz The German socialist Karl Marx was once asked what his favorite maxim was. He replied with a line by the Roman playwright Terence: “I am a man, and nothing that concerns a man, is a matter of indifference to me.” If for the moment we ignore the use of sexist language in this ancient quotation, we get a feel for the profoundly humanitarian spirit of Marx and socialists since him. Indeed, socialists are very concerned about the injustice and social ills in the world todayhunger, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, disease, war, the exploitation of workers, the oppression of nations, races, women, and gays, the destruction of the environment, and the threat of nuclear annihilation. Socialists obviously don’t have a monopoly on compassion, however. What distinguishes socialists from other socially concerned people is that we do not view these problems as normal, natural, eternal, or an inherent feature of the human condition.
Socialism is an economic system characterized by public ownership and centralized planning of all major industries (manufacturing, services, and energy), banks and insurance companies, agribusiness, transportation, the media, and medical facilities. Under capitalism, these giant enterprises dominate the economy but are privately owned and operated for the purpose of generating wealth for their owners by extracting it from working people who are paid only a small fraction of what their labor produces. Socialism turns this around so that the class that produces the wealth can collectively decide how it will be used for the benefit of all. As African American poet and communist Langston Hughes wrote in “Good Morning, Revolution”: –> Together, We can take everything: Factories, arsenals, houses, ships, Railroads, forests, fields, orchards And turn ’em over to the people who work. Rule ’em and run ’em for us people who work. –> Real socialism is, by definition, democratic.
Central to the meaning of socialism is common ownership. This means the resources of the world being owned in common by the entire global population. But does it really make sense for everybody to own everything in common? Of course, some goods tend to be for personal consumption, rather than to share—clothes, for example. People ‘owning’ certain personal possessions does not contradict the principle of a society based upon common ownership. In practice, common ownership will mean everybody having the right to participate in decisions on how global resources will be used. It means nobody being able to take personal control of resources, beyond their own personal possessions. Democratic control is therefore also essential to the meaning of socialism. Socialism will be a society in which everybody will have the right to participate in the social decisions that affect them. These decisions could be on a wide range of issues—one of the most important kinds of decision, for example, would b
The greatest thinker of Antiquity, Aristotle, wrote: – “Man is a political animal.” Social science of today, making use of the lessons of experience, develops and clarifies this truth stating, “Man is a social being.” It is in society that man learns to think, to express his thoughts in terms of known languages, and to do battle with the forces of nature. A completely isolated man is a man without reason, without power to act on the world around him. Society through the heritage of centuries has placed in the hands of man, perfected tools, machinery and means of production: fire, the steam engine, electricity. These things have gradually transformed the conditions of life and lay the foundation of the building of a new society based on the solidarity and common interests of all its members. The supporters of capitalism ignore or do not know this basic and primary fact. They do not know and recognise anything save the individual. This bourgeois outlook sacrifices the interest of all, th
