Jayeless Thoughts of a student socialist.

John Molyneux: The Future Socialist Society

I think this is a good choice of first post for this here new blog: a 1997 pamphlet, now in convenient digitised form, on how socialism (or communism) is not an implausible dream, but something eminently possible.

As a socialist, obviously (or perhaps not so obviously; I don't know) what motivates me is the idea that another world is possible. After all, the world has changed radically a hell of a lot of times – are we really expected to believe that capitalism is as good as it gets? A world in which the planet is razed to the ground, and plundered without thought of the future, for the sake of some "all-important" quarterly profit reports?

Often when I try describing to non-socialists what socialism could look like, they just say something like, "But you're just describing a perfect world though," as if this discredited the entire idea. What I think this pamphlet does a good job of showing is that this isn't just some utopian fantasy – it's a prediction we can make based on the material reality of capitalism, and what changes would take place in the transition to socialism. It's not mechanical, either – of course no one can say for sure how people would change their world in the future, but we can say what looks likely.

I'm just going to illustrate this point with the first paragraph from the section of the pamphlet on women's oppression:

It has become a commonplace among feminists that a socialist revolution will not automatically liberate women. They are right of course. For even after the revolution nothing happens automatically. History is made by human beings, and the struggle to overcome the oppression of women will have to be fought for and won.

I don't know, I like that this point got made because I've also been told it's naïve and idealistic to assume that the socialist revolution will bring about women's liberation. But I think Molyneux does a reasonable job explaining how interconnected the two are. That is, the roots of women's oppression lying in class society itself, once class society has been abolished, the basis of that oppression is gone. This doesn't mean that women's oppression will cease to exist overnight, any more than it means that every manifestation of class society will cease to exist overnight. Rival institutions to the nuclear family have to be established – communal childcare, kitchens, laundries and the like – and lingering reactionary ideas will continue to exist (and of course, have to be challenged) probably for decades after a revolution. But established and challenged (respectively) they will be. As he also makes the point – how could women be expected to fight for the liberation for all humanity and not simultaneously fight to liberate themselves?

I wanted to comment on that specific point, evidently, but women's oppression is only one of the ten sections of this pamphlet. If you don't know much about what socialism could look like, or even if you do but want the nice concise, easily-digestible justifications, this is a good read and not too long! I recommend it.