QYou know communism hasn't worked for a long period of time ever. Why do you expect communism to work in the US?
AThanks for your question. Before answering, I want to clarify a point of terminology. Communism has never existed. What we have seen (in the Soviet Union and in Cuba, for example) is socialism under the direction of a Communist Party. Confusing, but that's how history works, I guess.
Most people in the United States have an extremely distorted view of what socialism looks like in practice. Most of what we hear about Cuba comes from the children of the rich whose plantations and factories were nationalized by the Revolution. Most of what we hear about the Soviet Union came from people who fled. Imagine if I wanted to learn about the United States, but instead of talking to people here, I went to talk to expatriates living in Paris. My vision of the United States would be extremely skewed. The situation is even more complicated in the case of socialism because the people who are most threatened by it (the extremely wealthy) are also the people who own the news media that reports on socialist countries. So lack of good information is one problem.
Another problem is that socialism is relatively new. Capitalism took its first hesitant steps in the late Middle Ages. But how long did it take before the last feudal monarchies fell, before capitalism came into its own as a social and political world order? Not until the middle of the nineteenth century. The first successful socialist revolution occurred in 1871 and held power for two months. The second occurred in 1917. It lasted for seventy years and became the second superpower of the world. But it collapsed. Socialism in Cuba, China, and Vietnam is ongoing. In Venezuela, it is still new. Just as capitalism did not emerge and consolidate itself overnight, neither will socialism. It will require many revolutions, many experiments, much learning from mistakes.
Finally, and most importantly, capitalism has also failed. We see evidence of its failure every day. A homeless person begging for change. A student burdened with debt. A working class family who lost their home to foreclosure. A lack of good jobs. Mass incarceration. The problems we face cannot be solved by concentrating more money in the hands of the wealthy, which is the only solution that capitalism offers.
So how will socialism work in the United States? I don't know. I do know that we have a leg up on previous revolutions. In 1917, for example, tsarist Russia had very little heavy industry and almost no tradition of democracy. The revolution had to industrialize the country, redistribute resources, and create democratic institutions--all in wartime conditions. We already have highly developed industry and an extremely productive labor force. We also have strong, well-established democratic traditions. Our fight for socialism is a fight to expand and perfect democracy by putting those who create wealth (the working class) in control of the wealth they create.
Most people in the United States have an extremely distorted view of what socialism looks like in practice. Most of what we hear about Cuba comes from the children of the rich whose plantations and factories were nationalized by the Revolution. Most of what we hear about the Soviet Union came from people who fled. Imagine if I wanted to learn about the United States, but instead of talking to people here, I went to talk to expatriates living in Paris. My vision of the United States would be extremely skewed. The situation is even more complicated in the case of socialism because the people who are most threatened by it (the extremely wealthy) are also the people who own the news media that reports on socialist countries. So lack of good information is one problem.
Another problem is that socialism is relatively new. Capitalism took its first hesitant steps in the late Middle Ages. But how long did it take before the last feudal monarchies fell, before capitalism came into its own as a social and political world order? Not until the middle of the nineteenth century. The first successful socialist revolution occurred in 1871 and held power for two months. The second occurred in 1917. It lasted for seventy years and became the second superpower of the world. But it collapsed. Socialism in Cuba, China, and Vietnam is ongoing. In Venezuela, it is still new. Just as capitalism did not emerge and consolidate itself overnight, neither will socialism. It will require many revolutions, many experiments, much learning from mistakes.
Finally, and most importantly, capitalism has also failed. We see evidence of its failure every day. A homeless person begging for change. A student burdened with debt. A working class family who lost their home to foreclosure. A lack of good jobs. Mass incarceration. The problems we face cannot be solved by concentrating more money in the hands of the wealthy, which is the only solution that capitalism offers.
So how will socialism work in the United States? I don't know. I do know that we have a leg up on previous revolutions. In 1917, for example, tsarist Russia had very little heavy industry and almost no tradition of democracy. The revolution had to industrialize the country, redistribute resources, and create democratic institutions--all in wartime conditions. We already have highly developed industry and an extremely productive labor force. We also have strong, well-established democratic traditions. Our fight for socialism is a fight to expand and perfect democracy by putting those who create wealth (the working class) in control of the wealth they create.
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