Author: alanjjohnstone
Practical Socialism
Part 1 Any discussion of the subject of socialism as a practical alternative to capitalism must begin with a clear idea of what is meant by socialism. The Socialist Party defines this under the three broad headings of common ownership, democratic control and production solely for use. By common ownership, we mean an equal relation…
Socialism and Planning Part 2
Socialism and Planning: The Need for Feedback In Part I we explained why socialism could not possibly be organised on the basis of ‘society-wide’ planning – that is, a single vast plan encompassing everything. Though the numerous production (and distribution) units would obviously all be engaged in planning, the overall pattern of production would be unplanned….
Socialism and Planning Part 1
The impossibility of ‘One Big Plan’ In any kind of society, people need to plan. Even in the most gung-ho, ruggedly individualist laissez faire society imaginable, there would be plenty of planning. Entrepreneurs would have to plan what and how much to produce, along with the requisite quantities of material and labour inputs needed, in the face…
Old Capitalist Fallacies
The World Socialist Movement argues that human behaviour arises from the way society is organised. People’s attitudes and actions reflect the social relationships they form to produce wealth. Advocates for capitalism assert it is not such a bad system as it has been subject to reforms to provide a tolerable existence for workers: Workers used to have to make provision for unemployment,…
If socialism is a dream, capitalism is a nightmare
Present-day society is accurately labelled as capitalism because the production of its wealth is a process of the accumulation of capital. Investment in production is as capital; it is wealth which is applied to produce more of it, for disposal for profit. Thus capitalism is a society in which wealth takes the form of commodities—although…
Let’s make a revolution
The plot of a thousand sci-fi novels and movies is that the end of the world comes with a comet or asteroid colliding with the Earth, or perhaps a solar flare burning up our planet. The likelihood is, of course, that the world will be destroyed by an “internal’’ agency such as a nuclear war…