You’ve probably heard people saying things along the lines of “socialism’s great
in theory, but terrible in practice”; that it’s a beautiful idea, but ultimately that
it’s utopian.
And that if we want to be realistic then we have to accept that capitalism is simply the
only system that works: “Abandon your utopian idealism and embrace a system which requires
infinite growth on a planet of finite resources!” (lol)
But beyond the obvious absurdity of capitalists claiming that socialists are the utopian idealists
(as though we live in a parallel universe where up is down and down is up) when you
start reading Marx and Engels, you hear these socialists calling other socialists utopians!
There’s no escaping it!
The difference, however, is that Marx and Engels actually know what they’re talking
about!
So, what is it they have to say?
What is “utopian socialism” and how does it differ from Marxist “scientific socialism”?
Let’s find out.
Welcome to Socialism 101, a series designed to help educate people with no prior knowledge
on the basics of socialism and communism from an ML and MLM perspective with short and (hopefully)
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Now, unless you were born into a Marxist household or something like that, there’s a good chance
you’ve probably gone through a stage early on in your political development where you
conceived of socialism as a kind of “liberalism plus”.
You may have realised that slogans like Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, upon which modern
bourgeois liberal society is supposedly built, appear to only apply to the rich – while
the rest of us are forced to toil systematically under constraint, inequality and isolation.
And so maybe you’ve thought, well, in that case, we should look into doing a little socialism:
because socialism actually can guarantee us all liberty, maximum possible equality, and
nurture fraternity.
The basis for socialism, then, would be the achievement of these liberal ideals, which
capitalism has shown itself incapable of fulfilling.
And so maybe you start thinking of alternatives: maybe you and your mates could band together
and open up a worker co-operative, or – to hell with modern corporate society – maybe
yous could go even further and start up a radical egalitarian commune.
And, you know, you wouldn’t be the first to have these kinds of ideas.
In fact, prior to Marxism, these were the kinds of positions that some of the early
prominent socialists and communists like Saint-Simon, Fourier, and Robert Owen were putting forward.
And, between them, they got a lot of things right - there were many grains of truth in
their analyses which helped us to arrive at modern communist theory - but as human consciousness
is historically contingent and determined by social existence, they were of course fundamentally
limited by the moments in which they existed.
Consequently, their socialism was founded on a utopian, idealist basis that saw itself
as somehow existing outside of history, and assumed that we can - through rationality
and reason – simply conjure up visions of the perfect world based on egalitarian values
in our minds, and then construct society in accordance with that vision.
In a sense, this attempts to impose our ideas onto reality, rather than deriving our analysis
from reality.
And we can see how this would stem from an early-19th century context of bourgeois liberal
revolution, as a manifestation of the idealist notion that great men and their ideas are
the driving force of history.
Marxism, however, as you’ll recall from the past three videos, opposes this idealist
premise.
Instead, Marxism begins with a materialist analysis of history, examining the contradictions
within societies and what the resolution of these contradictions entails.
It bases its analysis on the fundamental interconnectedness of all phenomena, understanding dialectical
development, and rejecting a metaphysical, static notion of some perfect utopian ideal
to which reality will have to adjust itself.
The basis for socialism for Marxists, then, is not to be found supposedly external to
capitalism in the minds of these great utopian socialist thinkers attempting to realise their
ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
For scientific socialists, the basis for socialism is to be found within capitalism itself – its
internal contradiction.
Specifically, capitalism’s core antagonism between its socialised character of production,
and its private form of appropriation – manifested in the contradiction between the proletariat
and the bourgeoisie.
Now, under earlier systems, we often saw private production and private appropriation (and
we still do see this to a small extent with the petty bourgeoisie.
Think small handicraftsmen who produce their own goods, then appropriate all value created
by this process for themselves).
But under capitalism, we see generally that production is socialised as workers collectively
produce huge amounts of surplus value, which is then appropriated privately by capitalists.
The whole system is built on this private capitalist appropriation of the proletariat’s
collective unpaid labour.
And this is a hugely antagonistic contradiction wherein if the workers push for better conditions,
making any gains, this necessarily comes at a loss to the capitalist.
If the proletariat receives more of the surplus value it produces, then the capitalist necessarily
receives less.
If the proletariat receives all of the surplus value it produces, then the capitalist can
no longer exist!
Their existence depends on this unpaid labour of the proletariat – they need us… but
we don’t need them.
And the realisation of this fact pushes the proletariat forward to resolve the contradiction.
How is this fundamental contradiction of capitalism between social production and private appropriation
resolved?
By moving to both social production and social appropriation, where the surplus value generated
by proletarian labour power – instead of being appropriated by these capitalist vampires
– is appropriated by the proletariat itself.
And so we see that the basis for socialism, for scientific socialists (for Marxists),
lies in the resolution of this very contradiction between social production and private appropriation;
between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie; between the productive forces and the relations
of production.
Socialism necessarily emerges from capitalism itself through the resolution of its internal
contradictions – not from the minds and ideas of individuals dreaming of a perfect
utopian society.
So, we should now be able to see a distinction emerging between scientific socialism and
utopian socialism.
Where scientific socialists understand that proletarian revolution will usher in socialism
as a result of capitalism’s internal contradictions, utopian socialists essentially believe that
their good ideas can usher in socialism - that if only the masses knew about the horrors
of capitalism and the virtues of their ideas and values then everyone in the world would
certainly willingly embrace communism the very next day!
Now, we will dive deeper into the question of where correct ideas come from and the Marxist
theory of knowledge based on social practice in a later video.
But it should be clear by now already that, despite what some well-known progressive figures
of the day might say, Marxism is not just an extension of bourgeois liberalism, and
its basis is not simply a more complete realisation of its principals like Liberty, Equality,
and Fraternity.
Scientific socialism is based on the materialist analysis of class contradictions throughout
history, the resolutions of which progress society from one stage to the next.
In the context of modern society, scientific socialist analysis primarily focuses on capitalism’s
internal contradiction between socialised production and private appropriation, which
provides the material basis for socialism itself, as this antagonism must be resolved.
And further, it can only be resolved through socialist revolution, the hero of which is
the collective revolutionary proletariat, not the detached bourgeois intellectual who
conjures up their perfect egalitarian society in their mind and then attempts to impose
that vision upon the world.
Revolutions that advance us from one stage of social-historical development to the next
are not just the result of great men’s ideas being imposed on the world, but rather it
is the resolution of class contradictions within society that propels us forward to
the next epoch.
Therefore, the transition from capitalism to socialism, too, will not be the result
of great men constructing society based on their grand visions, but rather the result
of the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie towards the negation of
the negation in classless society.
This is the scientific socialist, Marxist basis for socialism, a decisive rupture from
earlier utopian socialist projects.
Today we’ve taken a look at Utopian Socialism and Scientific Socialism.
We’ve looked at the basis for utopian socialism, tracing its development out of bourgeois liberal
idealism.
We then contrasted that with scientific socialism as based on historical materialism and the
analysis of class contradiction as being the motor for social-historical development, rather
than just individuals with lofty ideals.
As always, these videos are not a substitute for studying theory in depth, just a supplement,
so make sure to continue reading to deepen your understanding of these topics.
Make sure to have a read of Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels for more.
It’s quite short and very accessible even for newcomers to theory.
Link in the description box below.
Next up: The Marxist Theory of Value.
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