Socialism and Capitalism

#Socialism is a socio-economic path where the production (factories, mines, machinery, tools, raw materials, land, buildings, means of transport, etc.) are owned and controlled by the public. The goal is to create a basic equitable distribution of wealth and power by reducing the disparities seen in capitalist societies. Socialism abolishes private control of the means of production, to transition to a system where goods and services are produced for use rather than profit. The guiding economic principle of socialism is “from each according to their ability, to each according to their work.”

Public Ownership: Big industries and resources are owned and managed by the people, democratic governance and cooperatives.

Economic Planning: Planning is used to allocate resources efficiently and equitably. With the digital transition and #4opens technology, this becomes practical.

Social Welfare: Social programs like healthcare, education, and social security ensure a basic standard of living for all people.

Reduced Income Inequality: The gap between the rich and the poor is reduced.

Democratic Control: Workers and the public control the economic decision-making processes.

Where #capitalism is an economic system run for private ownership of the means of production and profit. This includes capital accumulation, competitive markets, a price system, private property, and wage labour.

Private Property: Individuals and corporations own and control the means of production, and thus survival.

Market Economy: Goods and services are produced for and traded in competitive markets, where prices are determined by supply and demand. In today’s world, this means strong monopolistic control for private power and profit.

Profit Motive: The driving force behind economic activity is individual greed and the pursuit of profit.

Capital Accumulation: The accumulation of capital is central to economic growth and expansion. This leads to huge “external damage”, that’s the degradation of the poor and the environment we all live in.

Wage Labour: Workers sell their labour to owners of capital in exchange for wages. Over the last 40 years, this has seen a widening disparity.

It should be obverse to us all that capitalism leads to inequality and exploitation. Some Marxist theory:

Exploitation: In capitalism, workers do not receive the full value of their labour. Instead, the surplus value (the difference between what workers produce and what they are paid) is appropriated by capitalists as profit. We can see this plainly happening over the last 40 years.

Alienation: Workers are alienated from the products of their labour, the labour process, their fellow workers, and their own human potential because they work primarily for wages rather than for personal fulfilment or communal benefit. We have no idea how production happens anymore, our “economy” is a god we worship.

Inequality: Capitalism concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few, leading to significant social and economic inequalities. This builds social strife.

Instability: Capitalist economies push cycles of boom and bust, leading to periodic crises of overproduction and under consumption.

Means of Production The means of production are the physical, non-human inputs used for the production of economic value. This includes factories, machinery, tools, raw materials, land, and buildings. In a capitalist society, these are owned by private individuals and corporations.

Exploitation refers to how capitalists extract surplus value from workers. Workers produce more value through their labour than the wages they are paid; this excess value is taken by the capitalists as profit.

Surplus value is the difference between the value produced by labour and the actual wage paid to the labourer. It is a fundamental concept in Marxist economics, describing how capitalists generate profit by exploiting workers.

Capital refers to wealth in the form of money or assets that are used to produce more wealth. This includes investments in factories, machinery, raw materials, and labour.

Class struggle is the conflict between classes in society, primarily between the bourgeoisie (owners of the means of production) and the proletariat (working class). This struggle is the driving force of historical development in Marxist theory.

Social Democracy vs. Socialism

Social democracy advocates for a mix of capitalism and socialism. It supports a market economy, but with significant government intervention to ensure social justice and equity. Policies include welfare programs, labour rights, and regulation of markets to reduce inequalities and provide public services.

Socialism transitions away from capitalism, to abolish private ownership of the means of production altogether. The goal is to establish a classless, stateless society where resources and wealth are distributed according to need.

Communism is the final stage of #Marxist theory, where the state has withered away, and a classless, stateless, and moneyless society has emerged. All means of production are owned communally, and goods and services are distributed based on need rather than market dynamics. The guiding principle is “from each according to their ability, to each according to their needs.”

To actually move on this path, we would need a #Revolution, to overthrow one class by another. In Marxist terms, a socialist revolution involves the working class (proletariat) overthrowing the capitalist class (bourgeoisie) and establishing a socialist state as a transition to communism. This process entails significant social and economic upheaval to replace capitalist structures with socialist ones. Understanding these concepts provides a clearer path for ongoing debates and action.

The Illusion of Realism in the era of the #deathcult

Our “common sense” in capitalism disregards the history of socio-economic material conditions, #classwar, #ecocide, debt, slavery, violence, and oppression. In this we are currently blinded by the myth that there is no alternative to the current crap and broken system, this willfull blindness obscures the brutal realities on the edge of our “privileged” lives. The narrative is one of inevitability, that the market logic pushing us down the path of extinction is natural and unchangeable. So it becomes obverse that #KISS we need to change this “common sense”.

To understand why capitalism cannot be reformed into an ethical system, we need to delve into its history. Capitalism always thrives on exploitation and inequality, the wealth of the few is built on the backs of the many, over the last 40 years, after the decade of “mediating” social democracy this has accelerated into view.

Class War: The division between the working class and the ruling class has always been stark, with the latter using their power to maintain and increase their wealth at the expense of the former. This struggle is not just economic, but also a political and social battle, deeply embedded in the fabric of our societies.

#Ecocide: Capitalism’s dogmatic pursuit of “profit” leads to environmental degradation, that grows at on an unprecedented scale with the pushing of #climatechaos. The logic of endless growth is incompatible with the finite resources of our planet. This drive for the illusion of total control leads to a legacy of destruction that we are now have to begin to reckon with.

Debt and Slavery: The modern economy is built on a foundation of debt, trapping people and nations in cycles of dependence and exploitation. This mirrors the historical use of slavery, where human lives were commodified and controlled to serve the interests of capital. While the forms of exploitation have changed, the underlying power dynamics remain the same. From colonial conquests to modern-day policing, violence is a tool of the capitalist system to suppress dissent and build control.

The liberal attempts to reform capitalism have failed because the system’s core is fundamentally unethical. Reforms serve to placate dissent without addressing the root causes of inequality and exploitation. This band-aid approach leaves the structural issues intact, allowing them to fester and re-emerge in new forms we see today.

Economic Inequality: while making lives meaningful for meany people, wealth redistribution measures, such as progressive taxation or social welfare programs, do little to challenge the accumulation of capital by the worst people. When the cycle of boom and crash comes round, these measures are rolled back and undermined, highlighting the difficulty of enacting lasting change within the capitalist path.

Environmental Initiatives: Green capitalism, focus on sustainable business practices and eco-friendly products, fails to address the systemic drivers of environmental degradation. It results in greenwashing, where the appearance of sustainability masks ongoing ecological harm. It’s not working and is not going to work.

Social Reforms: While social justice movements have achieved victories, they face fierce resistance and are limited by the capitalist context in which they operate. True social change requires a fundamental shift in the distribution of power and resources #KISS

We are at a juncture, the choice is simple: continue down the path of capitalist “common sense” with its smoke and mirrors and building crises, or embark on a journey towards a different, equitable, and sustainable future. This shift requires collective action, imagination, and the courage to change and challenge entrenched systems of power. The revolutionary calls for a new global movement established outside the collapsing system, ready, willing, and able to build examples of this alternative, so people have options to move away from the current blinded “common sense”. In this change, we don’t actually have a choice.

#OMN #Revolution #NewFoundations #EndCapitalism #SustainableFuture #CollectiveOwnership #Degrowth #RadicalDemocracy #UniversalBasicServices #NonviolentChange #GlobalMovement #R21C #OGB

You can help make this happen https://opencollective.com/open-media-network

Take a moment to think about basics

Take a moment to think about basics: activism/campaigning is about building resistance to the mainstream to change its flow in progressive directions. Were #mainstreaming is about shifting activism to reduce these resistances to the mainstream flow. Thus, it’s good to understand that #mainstreaming is a #NGO agenda to build the jobs of the people involved, and is in turn funded to this end. Good not to get this shit mixed up.

Lifestyle is a way of forming a tribe inside this mainstream flow. The problem for activism is that this old school tribalism is obviously a BLOCK on social change, as looking and talking right are MORE important than being right. Being right would be “resistance” and lifestyle is about going with the counter flow.

On the other hand, there are advantages to “modern” tribal and lifestyle activism – it functions as social glue to hold campaigns together and provides a “uniform” flag to rally round. You notice I do not use words like anarchist, socialist, liberalism here as these have a different role in social change thinking – they are the ideas – the clothing is what I am taking about #fashionista is the hashtag.

#Revolution is about blowing up the flow of the mainstream so it floods into a different path, with much “collateral” damage in the process as we live inside a highly urban complex society. Both paths can be useful, both have costs.

Good not to mix this shit up

Let’s build something to compost this mess #OMN