Socialist Experiments of the Twentieth Century, Capitalist Restoration and Problems of Socialism

     Is there any viable alternative to capitalist system? What

 were the successes and failures of the Socialist experiments

of the 20th century? Why did they fail? Do we really need to

go beyond the Marxist Communism as some speculative

vagabond “philosophers” have claimed? What are the

problems of Socialism? Can we really organize the

revolutionary redemptive activity of the working class, in the

words of Walter Benjamin, in the 21st century within the

framework of Marxism?

To discuss all these questions

Polemic

invites you to a talk on

Socialist Experiments of the Twentieth Century, Capitalist

 Restoration and Problems of Socialism

Date: 25th March
Time:  2:30pm

Place: Shramik (Vincent Building) , Road No.-3, Lokmanya

Tilak Colony, Dadar(East), Mumbai

Speaker: Abhinav Sinha

(Editor, 'Muktikami Chhatron-Yuvaon ka Aahwan', New Delhi)

 polemic.mu@gmail.com

Background:

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Soviet Union disintegrated in 1990, the entire

bourgeoisie wallowed in hysteric shrieks, proclaiming the ultimate victory of capitalism and

liberal bourgeois democracy. The hired hack of Rand Corporation, Francis Fukoyama

contended that liberal bourgeois democracy is the best that the humanity can hope to

achieve and therefore capitalism is the ‘end of history’ and rational-choice making liberal

bourgeois individual is the ‘last man’. However, in 2005 when Fukoyama visited New Delhi

to deliver a lecture he conceded that capitalism is faced with a grave challenge, and that is

Maoism! Apparently, he was obliged to eat his own words and liberal bourgeois democracy

now did not simply seem to him the end of everything. The recent years have shown it

even more clearly.

Now, it is a cliche to say that the entire capitalist order is tangled in the most serious crisis

after the Great Depression of the 1930s. Everyone knows it. Capitalism looks far from being

victorious and healthy. Working masses in even the advanced countries are on the streets

against the vagaries, chaos and anarchy of the capitalist economy and society; Eurozone is

submerged in the mire of sovereign debt crisis which is only the continuance of the

Subprime crisis which originated in the last days of 2006 in the US and then took the entire

global financial system by storm. In fact, the growth rate of the world economy has not

even touched the mark of 3 percent since the collapse of the Dollar-Gold standard in the

early-1970s. Clearly, the capitalist world is in a perpetual mild recession which breaks into

serious economic crisis at certain intervals. These intervals are becoming increasingly

shorter and that demonstrates that Imperialism is even more decadent, moribund and

parasitic than the times of Lenin.

However, there are broadly three kinds of responses to this crisis. One is the emergence of

popular and spontaneous anti-capitalist movements all around the world, especially in the

advanced western capitalist countries and relatively less-developed countries of Europe, like

Greece, Portugal, Spain, etc. These movements are spontaneous reaction of the masses of

these countries against the poverty, unemployment, homelessness, etc. These protests have

evoked a lot of enthusiasm in a section of the intelligentsia and academe. These

intellectuals and academicians are uncritically celebrating these spontaneous upsurges and

hope that these rebellions will automatically lead towards a better world.

Then there are intellectuals and thinkers who claim that the Socialist experiments of the

20th century showed that the project of Marxist Socialism has failed and ended in a

catastrophe, and that we need to go beyond the Marxist communism. Intellectuals like Alain

Badiou, Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt, Slavoj Zizek, etc. argue that there is a need for a

so-called ‘new type of communism’, which has moved beyond Marxism! Some say this

openly (like Badiou) and some say it the other way round (like Zizek), while claiming their

allegiance to the revolutionary Marxist theory. Though Trotskyites are different in their

ideological and political stances and manouvres, they, too, are trying to revive themselves

in the heat of the crucible of these spontaneous anti-capitalist protests.

The third type of response is that of the ML revolutionaries around the world. The ML

revolutionaries around the world are submerged in the mire of hopelessness and

pessimism. The source of this pessimism lies in their own dogmatism, incorrect ideological

understanding and programmatic position, and the lack/absence of a dialectical

understanding of the failure of the Socialist experiments of the 20th century. These ML

revolutionaries have found a new ray of hope in these movements. Most of the ML

revolutionaries of India also, are uncritically celebrating these anti-capitalist movements out

of their own sense of depression, frustration, pessimism and hopelessness.

Then there are various kinds of anarchists, nihilists, even right-wingers who are part of

these spontaneous upsurges. The anarchists are most active political component of the

present anti-capitalist protests. They had been hoping that these anti-capitalist protests will

prove the validity of their political arguments, especially, when even the Marxists and post-

Marxists are discrediting the Socialist experiments of the 20th century. However, they were

doomed to an anti-climax, as, sooner than expected, the Occupy Wall Street movement

dispersed.

So we are faced with a peculiarly difficult scenario. On the one hand, it has become clear as

daylight that the capitalist system and the liberal bourgeois democracy are not working.

People around the globe are taking to streets against this predatory system. The claims of

‘end of history’, ‘end of ideology’, etc. have been put to their proper place, that is, the dust

bin of history. Imperialism has become even more fragile, hollow, parasitic, moribund and

decadent in the age of Globalization and is persisting because of force of inertia. And yet, it

seems that there is no viable alternative to the capitalist system! The spontaneous popular

movements against the vagaries of global capitalist system have clearly failed to provide

any alternative, any scientific, practiceable utopia. The Marxist revolutionaries have no

clear-cut understanding of the Socialist experiments of the 20th century, their successes and

failures; there are post-Marxist thinkers who believe that there is a need for non-Marxist

communism; other left intellecuals have, mostly, nothing left in their minds. In such a

scenario, everyone who believes that there is a need for an alternative and there can be an

alternative, needs to ask himself/herself some questions.

Is there any viable alternative to capitalist system? What were the successes and failures of

the Socialist experiments of the 20th century? Why did they fail? Do we really need to go

beyond the Marxist Communism as some speculative vagabond “philosophers” have

claimed? What are the problems of Socialism? Can we really organize the revolutionary

redemptive activity of the working class, in the words of Walter Benjamin, in the 21st

century within the framework of Marxism?

These are the questions that everyone of us needs to answer, every person who is still

committed to change and who is not swept away by ideological speculations and

ruminations of the “free-thinkers”, who do not believe in the ‘end’ of everything, who can

still dream; who are not signatories of political and ideological skepticism and disbelief.

‘Polemic’ invites you to a talk by Abhinav Sinha on these very questions. He is editor of

well-known hindi magazine ‘Muktikami Chhatron-Yuvaon ka Aahwan’ and an activist and

researcher. The talk will be followed by an open discussion.

With Revolutionary Regards,

Polemic

Contact: Prashant- 09930490731,