10 Things You Should Know About Socialism

What do we mean when we talk about “socialism”? Here are ten things about its theory, practice, and potential that you need to know.

Over the last 200 years, socialism has spread across the world. In every country, it carries the lessons and scars of its particular history there. Conversely, each country’s socialism is shaped by the global history, rich tradition, and diverse interpretations of a movement that has been the world’s major critical response to capitalism as a system.

We need to understand socialism because it has shaped our history and will shape our future. It is an immense resource: the accumulated thoughts, experiences, and experiments accomplished by those yearning to do better than capitalism.

I gather and present the basic theories and practices of socialism. I examine its successes, explore its challenges, and confront its failures. The point is to offer a path to a new socialism based on workplace democracy.

[yesmagazine.org]

One of Professor Richard Wolff's latest books presents the basic theories and practices of socialism. Below you'll find 10 areas of interest within the article and book, within the article above a short commentary of each. You might recall him as I often post his videos from his show Democracy at Work in the group.

1. Socialism is a yearning for something better than capitalism

2. Socialism is not a single, unified theory

3. The Soviet Union and China achieved state capitalism, not socialism

4. The U.S., Soviet Union, and China have more in common than you think

5. Thank American socialists, communists, and unionists for the 1930s New Deal

6. If 5 was news to you, that’s due to the massive U.S.-led global purge of socialists and communists after WWII

7. Since socialism was capitalism’s critical shadow, it spread to those subjected by and opposed to capitalist colonialism

8. Fascism is a capitalist response to socialism

9. Socialism has been, and still is, evolving

10. Worker co-ops are a key to socialism’s future

Will we ever reach a full implication of Marx's theory of socialism? I highly doubt that can be the case anytime soon, if at all. But I do believe a wide spread worker cooperative can be achieved if we can just manage to pull the many trapped in conditioning propaganda of capitalism from under that mountain of misinformation.

The 2 main fronts in this is - 1 - confronting the waste we face within our government towards perpetual warring. Within money, human lives, infrastructures, and resources, worldwide. These actions use a vast amount of resources we are currently waging these wars over in the first place! Creating large environment issues to build on an already problematic issue in climate change also. We must separate this entity from the power of the capitalist ruling class by using realistic information to sway these people from their continued support within the system that will never change as is. Replacing their politicians with people who have a realistic view of a productive society.

This could create another new challenge to the ruling class capitalist seen during the great depression, forcing them to either opp out of a dying obsolete structured society and default contaminating resources, or to join society through new advancements keeping a vast amount of their riches and egos intact. Innovation on the social structure and humane fronts has been purposely in stalemate conditions for several decades to benefit a very few. We are currently marching towards Gene Roddenberry's narrative for Star Trek without an escape. While the elite are building their way out and leave the rest of us to die out.