A Challenge for Scientific Socialism

by Carl Pinkston

“Oh, happy he who still can hope in our day

To breathe the truth while plunged in seas of error!

What we don’t know is really what we need,

And what we know is of no use to us whatever!

But the radiance of this hour

Must not be marred by gloomy thoughts”[1]

Carl Pinkston is a Vanguard Public Foundation board member, Sacramento Area Black Caucus Education Chair, Sacramento Congress of African Peoples organizer, and a member of the Scientific Socialism Collective.

Introduction

The following are my thoughts on the importance of scientific socialism. This paper cannot address all the issues, but I hope to expand on the points in the near future. Please excuse the quotes but I wanted to demonstrate that my ideals are not new, but relevant for today.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in the early nineties has plunged the worldwide left into a state of crisis of socialism. To this very day, the left has not fully recovered. The crisis of socialism has shattered leftist’s views of China and USSR as the living proof of actuality existing socialism – the model of socialism in action. As Max Elbaum noted:

“ The collapse of the USSR and the accompanying surge of capitalist triumphalism spread demoralization throughout the communist left. But, to many people’s surprise, it also dealt a blow to all other socialist trends and provided (or more accurately, revealed) a full-blow crisis for the entire left.”[2]

The last sixteen years has been disappointing and defensive in nature. The left replaced community organizing with building Non Governmental Organization (NGO). Also, the left went from the Euro-communism to the Green movement. The National Liberation Marxists turned in their green berets for three-piece suits of electoral politics. Lastly, international political theories of Marxism have fallen to anarchism, Post-Modernism and Islamic Fundamentalism. As Max Elbaum would describe it,

“Since 1989-90, few activists have gravitated toward Maoism or any other variant of Marxism-Leninism. Indeed, it is extremely unlikely that many people radicalized in the coming decade will turn in that direction.”[3]

Although Max may be right in his assessment, world wide events of today (more clearly the post 9/11 world), demand that socialist’s once again rebuild a new scientific socialist movement for this period at this time. There are three major reasons that suggest the need for a scientific socialist movement.

First, events in the world are moving in the direction of mass movements and liberation struggles. On September 2002, George W Bush re-declared war on the working class and oppressed people of the world. As a result, oppressed peoples of the world are in an early stage of standing up and uniting to defeat imperialist powers for war and oppression. We are living in the darkest period in history where the US is committing terrorism against people of color throughout the world. But also we are living in the most challenging times of history where people from Lebanon, Venezuela, and South Africa are fighting back against US domination. The bourgeoisies of the world (led by the United States) are in terror of the working class and oppressed world.

Second, throughout the 1990’s globalization has given new life to Advance Imperialism and its final days. Globalization has opened new markets for the center nations (United States in particular) by exporting cheap goods and destroying local markets. Finance capital exported capital in new markets and engaged in predatory lending practices by using the World Bank and IMF on third world nations. Industries have moved factories all over the globe seeking cheap labor which has created the largest mass labor migration in history.

With globalization there has been centralization. The information age has centralized communication and transportation – just in time. Also, the largest corporate merger in history occurred with Exxon acquiring Mobil Oil, Atlantic Richfield and BP Amoco, and others. The old oil and finance capital bourgeoisie families have retaken control of the political state in the United States and realigned foreign policy on the basis of oil. The war in Iraq is an example of US imperialism global control of raw resources. There will be more so-called preventative wars for control of raw resources in the future.

Today, we are in a period of advance imperialism. Advance imperialism is racial imperialism that spreads racism around the world. The United States, the most dominate Advance imperialist power, is seeking total hegemony on an economic and political level, but there is competition from other imperialist powers such as Great Britain, France, Germany, Japan and China. The law of uneven development with nations is being played out in the economic sphere with China thirst for oil and the rise of India quest for a piece of an economic pie. There is also the contradiction with the US and the periphery nations such as Venezuela, Africa, Cuba, and South Asia.

Advance imperialism is imperialism in a declining state. It is clear that the US hegemony is maintained by the threat or use of military force –the global mafia imposing a new imperialist order on those who might otherwise be reluctant to fall into line. As with the case of Great Britain and Roman military powers they were all in the state of economic and political decline.

Third, we are in a pre-mass movement period. Although transformational politics is not on the table, we are in a period where a small number of new activists are asking the questions of new strategies and tactics for change. A pre-mass movement period is a period of emerging mass movement and institutions which are assisting in the development of people’s consciousness. The mass anti-war movements in the US and the national liberation movements in Lebanon, Palestine and other places around the world are developing a new generation of activists. However, the left is fragmented, marginalized and politically undeveloped. Many on the left are divided by old ideological and personal lines which have made it difficult for a broad united front to emerge. Moreover, the political collapsed of the left has created a political vacuum that was filled by post-modernism, anarchism and fundamentalism. Post Modernism have contributed to the notion of including race, gender and all other oppressed peoples’ ideals to the table. Feminism has expanded the class analysis and strategy as a result of Post Modernism thinking. However, the limit of post-modernism is the absence of transformative politics where “live with your time, adapt to it, and manage each day” [4]is the primary form of struggle. Also, Post Modernism raises human discourse to the highest level of engagement but suspect objective reality. Throughout the nineties anarchism was leading struggles against WTO, free trade, and the globalization process of capitalism. Also, the traditional Marxist left formations were in a state of declined but anarchists were on the front line against the expansion of globalization. The Zapatista movement was a shinning example for the anarchist theory and practice. However, anarchist anti-authoritarianism position made it difficult to overcome the problem of lack of leadership development, organizational liberalism and white supremacy. Islamic Fundamentalism is principally waging a fierce battle with imperialism in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and other places around the world. However, the fundamentalist are not primarily interested in knowing why things have been and are what they are. What interests them more is to know how things have moved away from principles. [5]

Why is scientific socialism critical at this time? One, the working class and oppressed people needs the theory of scientific socialism to pursue as a science, but also we live in new and different times. The development in social science (human social relations), racism, sexism, heterosexism, general science, technology, information-age, and imperialist hegemony demand the study and pursuit of all these issues as a science in order to complete scientific socialism today.

If we take a scientific approach of studying and understanding the social phenomena by ascertaining the objective laws governing the development of human history and its social relation we can change human conditions. The objective laws governing the development of human history is social production which created class struggles that has lead us to capitalism – as scientists we can impart to the masses the change from capitalism to socialism. A new world is possible. Frederick Engel noted in Socialism: Utopian and Scientific

“To accomplish this act of universal emancipation is the historical mission of the modern proletariat. To thoroughly comprehend the historical conditions and thus the very nature of this act, to impart to the now oppressed proletarian class a full knowledge of the conditions and of the meaning of the momentous act it is called upon to accomplish, this is the task of the theoretical expression of the proletarian movement, scientific socialism.”[6]

To thoroughly comprehend the historical conditions of the day and to educate the working class for its historical mission is no easy task, but Marx, Lenin, Mao, Che and others have given us some tools to work with. A challenge for us is to thoroughly understand the historical period and conditions of today and effectively educate the working class for its historical mission.

Two, scientific socialism needs to return to the socialist movement to fill the political vacuum. I understand that there are some (i.e. post-modernist, some anarchists, and fundamentalist) who have an aversion to scientific approaches. Some on the left consider that objective truth no longer exist, but language and individual realities (moments of specific social practices as described by neo-pragmatists[7]) are the only way to understand the world today. The fact is objective truth does exist no matter how you slice it or dice it. Using language to identify or name something different does not change the objective reality. A classical example is people of African descent who have been called the N word, colored, Negro, Afro-American, African American and African, but the fact is they are people of African descent. Individual realities do not disprove objective realities either. For example, a million people had a million experiences or a taste of realities on a trip to New York, but the objective reality is that there is a physical place called New York. Also, some on the left consider science an enemy of the people and reject approaches that border on science as Euro-centric and elites. But in the final analysis, the inclusion of a scientific approach will keep socialists out of the darkness and into light toward understanding the current situation and propose a new strategy for revolutionary change.

Lastly, a new socialist movement will encompass trends of Marxism, revolutionary nationalisms, feminisms, socialisms and anarchist’s forces. A broad base scientific socialist movement is critical to build new emerging mass movements. Without the broad base movement that is vibrant in ideological debate and united in action, the working class and oppressed people movements will remain undeveloped.

Some would say that Marxism’s have contributed a lot in the past 100 years of human history. This is my point – we have replaced scientific socialism with Marxism. We need to stand on the platform of scientific socialism and not simply Marxism. Or as Frederick Engel wrote to Conrad Schmidt in Berlin:

“The materialist conception of history has a lot of dangerous friends nowadays, who use it as an excuse for not studying history. Just as Marx, commenting on the French “Marxists” of the late seventies used to say: “All I know is that I am not a Marxist.” [8]