21st Century Socialism: What Is It?
Hema Senanayake
Sumanasiri Liyange in a recent article wrote to Colombo Telegraph tried to intimate that the 21st Century Socialism would be different from its old version. In regard to that he presented a list of five points or characteristics quoting from Bolivarian revolutionaries of Venezuela. No socialism or any other economic system would prevail if that system is not efficient than present capitalistic system. These Bolivarian revolutionaries know nothing about economic efficiency. That may be the reason the term “economic efficiency” is missing from the five point list. Let us have a quick look about the five characteristics which characteristics Sumanasiri takes seriously. I quote from Sumanasiri’s article on June 11th, 2015 to CT.
“1. Human development as the center and focus. Socialism is to be governed by the logic of humanism and solidarity and have as its aim the satisfaction of human needs, not profit;
2. Respect for nature, and opposition to consumerism. Our goal should not be to live “better” but to live “well”;
3. Socialism requires a new dialectic of production/ distribution/ consumption based on: (a) socialownership of the means of production, (b) social production organized by workers and (3) the satisfaction of communal needs;
4. A new concept of efficiency that both respects nature and seeks human development;
5. Rational use of available natural and human resources through a decentralized participatory planning process that has nothing do with the hyper centralized bureaucratic planning of the Soviet state. (A World to Build. pp. 57 and 83-84)” As Sumanasiri intimated the author of this book is Marta Harnecker, a Bolivarian revolutionary.
Please read the above quote carefully. Is there any single word about “economic efficiency?” – Nothing. The main weakness of the Soviet Union style socialism was not having “centralized bureaucratic planning” instead of having “decentralized participatory planning” or even lack of “social production organized by workers” or not having “human development as the center and focus.” The main weakness of Soviet system originated from its inability to comprehend the “market mechanism” as a tool of planning of the production and distribution. When you failed to comprehend it, you automatically fail to comprehend the necessity to ensure having the real cost of every produce. When you failed to do both you would fail to establish a currency that freely and flexibly penetrate into the each cell of produce so as to express its value. When these things fail economic efficiency fails. That was what happened in Soviet Union. Its system was not competitive with western capitalism. Didn’t any socialist see this crisis?
In fact Leon Trotsky saw it. So, he wrote, “Market and credit mechanism serve the cause of socialism better than capitalism” (Revolution Betrayed). He highly criticized the Soviet styled price regulations imposed by professors of Stalin regime. Read More