The critique of “state socialism” or “state capitalism” by the western left will never not be funny. If the western left plan to seize state power and get back on the road to socialism, they themselves will have to implement similar economic systems.
Nevertheless, the establishment of a state capitalist regime is unavoidable, and will remain so everywhere. The developed capitalist countries themselves will not be able to enter a socialist path (which is not on the visible agenda today) without passing through this first stage. It is the preliminary phase in the potential commitment of any society to liberating itself from historical capitalism on the long route to socialism/communism. Socialization and reorganization of the economic system at all levels, from the firm (the elementary unit) to the nation and the world, require a lengthy struggle during an historical time period that cannot be foreshortened.
this is why i don’t spend a lot of energy trying to convince my western leftist friends to critically challenge their historical perspective on people like mao or stalin. when one of those decade-weeks happen, they’ll see the revolution won’t be clean; they’ll have to acknowledge what is to be done. i think it’s much more effective to focus on proper analysis rather than factual accuracy.
of course, that is not at all to say that the latter is unimportant.
The critique of “state socialism” or “state capitalism” by the western left will never not be funny. If the western left plan to seize state power and get back on the road to socialism, they themselves will have to implement similar economic systems.
this is why i don’t spend a lot of energy trying to convince my western leftist friends to critically challenge their historical perspective on people like mao or stalin. when one of those decade-weeks happen, they’ll see the revolution won’t be clean; they’ll have to acknowledge what is to be done. i think it’s much more effective to focus on proper analysis rather than factual accuracy.
of course, that is not at all to say that the latter is unimportant.