Letter: Enquiry (1977)

Letter to the Editors from the November 1977 issue of the Socialist Standard

Enquiry

In the Guardian (Aug. 26th 1977) I read under FIND OUT ABOUT SOCIALISM: “For specimen literature write to.”

I wonder your ideas about Socialism and how you would translate them into action.

I’m Hungarian-born. I lived there for 26 years, but I’ve been living in Sweden for month. I know what socialism means in practice in Hungary or in the other socialist countries. I know what it means that’s why I deserted Hungary and live here in Sweden.

Walter Ja’nos

Sweden

Reply:

Socialism is a widely mis-used term but it does have a precise meaning. In socialist society there will be common ownership and democratic control of the means of production by the whole, worldwide, community. Every human being will have the same relationship to the means of production and free access to what is produced. Production will be solely for use, for example food will be grown and processed simply to be eaten. There will not be any buying or selling and money will not have any rôle to play. Men and women will as free individuals co-operate to perform all the necessary work of socialist society. Since there will be no possible motive for one group in society to dominate or exploit another, armed forces, armaments, the state itself, will not exist.

Is this the kind of society you left behind in Hungary? Does it exist anywhere? If you compare the basic conditions in Hungary and Sweden you will find that the social system in both countries is capitalism. The vast majority of people possess only their ability to work, their labour-power, which they must sell for wages. Whether members of the working class are employed by private capitalists or the state makes no real difference. In both cases the working class is paid less in wages than the value of what it produces. The minority who as a class own the means of production are able to appropriate the difference. In other words in Hungary as in all of the so-called socialist countries we find wage-labour and capital—the mark of capitalism.

We as a party cannot achieve Socialism on our own. The only way to get Socialism is for the immense majority of the working class to understand their class position in society and to organize consciously and politically to take control of the political machinery for the sole purpose of abolishing capitalism and establishing Socialism.

When you have read some of our literature we shall be pleased to discuss any points you wish to raise.