by Natalio Perez aka Selucha

Just some elaborations on a Facebook comment I made earlier.

It’s not a matter of being better or worse, it’s a matter of democratic socialism being untenable. Objectively yes, it is a superficial improvement in the sense that workers have more bargaining power, social services are more widely available, etc. But without attempting to sound like an orthodox Marxist here, democratic socialism ignores the built-in class nature of society and aims to create a state in which no particular class exercises economic or political power. The problem is, of course, that a state independent of class character is impossible and the bourgeoisie will eventually resume its brute domination over the proletariat. Look at European social democracy right now; as soon as the capitalists can no longer earn significant profits within that paradigm, workers rights and human services are the first thing to go out the window.

Democratic socialism developed in the first place in the aftermath of World War II as the system’s way to pacify the proletariat of Western Europe and to prevent full-on revolution. Capitalists realized that they would have to make some temporary sacrifices to retain their class position in the long-term, sacrifices which they are now transferring back onto the people. Is this really the kind of system we want: one that falls short of the final destruction of capitalism and allows the resurgence of the enemy?

In addition, for the most part ‘democratic socialism’ only is possible in advanced industrial countries that rely on their privileged position in the global capitalist economy. If the U.S. were to pursue democratic socialism and renounce its global privilege and supremacy, the economy would collapse, because private property and decent standards of living for the proletariat can only coexist if other people and countries are experiencing super-exploitation of their labor and resources, and if advanced countries maintain their monopoly on certain advanced production. Advocating democratic socialism, then, is a tacit approval of this unbalanced global relationship between the first and third world.

Let’s stake out our position clearly and without equivocation: the only way forward is revolution: communist revolution. This means the destruction of the old system, the expropriation of the bourgeoisie, and the emancipation of the people.

Nothing less than liberation!