STILL STEALING FROM THE WORKERS’ WAGE PACKETS!
(August 2004)
(Comments: tony.papard@btinternet.com)
(Background music: The Internationale in Russian)
I’m sick of hearing of stories of Russian multi-millionaires and their latest acquisitions. All their wealth was stolen from the Soviet people, who once owned the means of production, distribution and exchange. We know that the Socialist system was corrupted by careerist opportunists who siphoned off the Soviet people’s wealth for themselves, and who gave themselves special privileges such as access to goods imported from the West, to hard currency shops, trips outside the Socialist camp and the very best of home-produced goods and services (Zil limousines, luxury mansions, caviar, etc.).
I fail to see, however, that by increasing this exploitation by adoption of a capitalist system and thereby destroying all the security and gains of the Socialist welfare state (full employment, cheap rents, cheap and reliable public transport, good education and health services, trade union organized holidays, guaranteed pensions, etc.) has helped the people of the former Soviet Union. How did handing over the State-owned enterprises and cooperatives to Western multi-nationals and home-grown capitalists help the people of the Socialist countries? These assets belonged to the people, just as the railways, electricity and gas utitlities, the telephone system, etc. once belonged to the British people. Now we are all subsidizing the profits of private shareholders and millionaires from our hard-earned wage packets! You read that this or that privatized company made a profit of, say, £20 million last year, then in the next paragraph read they received subsidies from the taxpayer of £25 million. This is sheer exploitation!
The break-up of the USSR, and that of the Federal Socalist Republic of Yugoslavia, was a tragedy. The Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic has also broken up into two separate states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Whilst the other Socialist states of Eastern Europe have also adopted capitalism, which after 40 or so years of even imperfect Socialism can only be bad news for the peoples of these countries who saw their State-owned and cooperative-owned assets seized by greedy capitalist thieves.
The German Democratic Republic, one of the most economically successful Socialist states, has disappeared altogether, to be swallowed up by the Federal Republic of Germany which bought up all its factories and other assets, and destroyed its Socialist welfare state. 40 years of Socialism on German soil brought to nothing. It wasn’t only the Berlin Wall which was destroyed in 1989, so was the DDR welfare system and the peoples’ security, who are now exploited second-class citizens in a reunited Germany.
All the peoples of the former Socialist countries now suffer under the yoke of capitalism, more so than their compatriots in the Westerm capitalist states which thru decades of trade unionism have won at least some basic rights. The peoples of the developing world and the former Socialist countries are used as a source of cheap labor by the international capitalists, and this in turn increases unemployment in the Western capitalist states.
Karl Marx said that all profit on capital was stolen from the wage packets of the workers. This remains as true today as it ever was. Look at the terrible exploitation of the developing world where workers slave away for a pittance. Look at the low wages in the former Socialist countries compared to those in the Western capitalist states. If this isn’t exploitation - stealing from the wage packets of the workers - what is it?
It is true that wages were lower than in the West in the Socialist countries, but then they had subsidized goods and services to compensate. These have all gone, and people in those countries are left to struggle on their own with virtually no social security. They have lost everything that was gained from decades of Socialism.
Remember why the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961. You had a capitalist enclave, West Berlin, 100 miles inside the German Democratic Republic. There were open borders between West Berlin and the GDR Capital between 1949 and 1961. This was an impossible situation. Not only did the West pour money into West Berlin to make it the ‘shop-window of Western capitalism’, ‘the thorn in the flesh of the GDR’, but the open border meant people could get jobs in the Western sectors at high wages, paying no taxes to the GDR government, and get a cheap flat in the GDR Capital. They also had access to subsidized public transport in the East, subsidized food shops and of course they were paying heavily subsidized rents in the East, all paid for by hard-working GDR citizens. By allowing its citizens to get jobs in West Berlin the GDR was being bled dry of its labor force, and in addition the economic scams taking advantage of the low cost of living in the GDR Capital whilst working and paying taxes in West Berlin could not go on indefinitely.
Some sort of border controls had to be introduced between Western and Eastern sectors of the city, with their totally different economic and political systems. I am not condoning the shooting of people trying to illegally cross the Berlin Wall, but there was an absolute necessity for a physical barrier and strict border controls between the capitalist West Berlin and the surrounding territory of the socialist GDR. All countries control their borders, immigration and emigration, and the GDR had to do the same, especially with capitalist West Berlin located like a poisonous cancer in the middle of its sovereign territory.
Divided Berlin just emphasized the differences between a low-wage/highly subsidized Socialist economy and a high-wage/high price everyone-look-out-for themselves Capitalist economy. The two cannot exist side-by-side with no physical barriers to separate them and with no border controls – the two systems are incompatible. Similarly a Socialist economy cannot be converted into a Capitalist one without impoverishing the people.*
It is true Socialism needed drastic reforms and democratization in order to overcome corruption and inefficiency, but introducing capitalism only made things far worse.
The Soviet Union and the Socialist camp must be revived in a more democratic form, with genuine multi-party free elections so no ruling class can gain absolute power again. There must also be a Market Socialist economy (see article on Socialism in the 21st Century) with the emphasis on cooperatives and publicly owned companies rather than State-owned monopolies, similar to the Socialism of the former Yugoslav federation.
Capitalism steals from the wage packets of the workers in cheap labor markets, and causes unemployment elsewhere. This in turn leads to constant economic crises, slumps and endless wars as capitalists seek to win new sources of cheap labor and other resources. The Iraq war was all about grabbing oil supplies. The capitalist arms manufacturers need constant wars to make their huge profits. It has to be said that the corrupt Stalinist ruling class of the Soviet Union and other Socialist countries also profited from the arms trade. In the name of ‘national liberation’ and ‘assisting progressive forces around the world’ they raked in the profits of this evil trade, just as the capitalists do today.
It is time for a new world order. We need genuine Socialist states with Socialist Constitutions, and for these states to come together to form a new federation of socialist states.
When I saw the smiling face of a young Russian multi-millionaire on the TV news recently I just felt sick. One day the workers of the world must unite and grab back all the wealth that has been stolen from them over the years. They must devise an efficient, competitive Market Socialism within a democratic multi-party system operating under a Socialist Constitution. This will insure the workers who create all wealth are never exploited again by greedy capitalists and Soviet-style nomenclatura (the corrupt opportunist ruling class which exploited and oppressed the people of the Socialist countries).
The Stalinist ruling-class exploiters of the Socialist countries have now become the corrupt nationalist politicians and capitalist millionaires of the post-Socialist era. In addition Western multi-nationals have moved in to also exploit the cheap labor markets in these countries.
It is time to call a halt. In Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and elsewhere we need true Socialist parties and leaders to replace the capitalist New Labor and other Social Democratic parties.
In the People’s Republic of China, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea and elsewhere they also need new Socialist parties and free elections so the corrupt, capitalist Communist and Workers’ Parties no longer have a monopoly of absolute power. It will take time for these regimes to collapse or become democratized, but let’s hope the people of these Southeast Asian countries don’t make the mistake of the people of Eastern Europe and Central Asia; what is needed is reform of the Socialist system. Unfotunately in these nominally Socialist countries most of the publicly-owned assets have already been handed over to Western multi-nationals and home-grown capitalists – the means of production, distribution and exchange must all be taken back into public ownership with no or minimal compensation. Not necessarily State enterprises, but cooperatives and publicly owned companies where the profits don’t get stolen by greedy shareholders.
I may not see it in my lifetime, but I look forward to a genuine Marxist federation of democratic Socialist states which will one day encompass the entire globe. We will learn from the terrible mistakes of 20th Century Socialism and its aftermath, and create a truly successful form of democratic socialism where no-one is exploited. Where the full value of every person’s labor is reflected in their wage-packet, and where those unable to work thru disability or age are looked after by the State.Where everybody has peace of mind and social security and is looked after by the Socialist State from the cradle to the grave.
* From 'The Guardian' newspaper, September 9th, 2004: '20% of Germans want the Wall back...... nearly one in five Germans would like to see the barrier that split the country during the cold war put back, according to a survey released yesterday. A poll by the Forsa Institute found that a quarter of west Germans wished the 15 million east Germans could be cut off again by the Berlin wall, while 12% of east Germans did not want to be part of the united country.....In the formerly communist east, where wages are still below western levels and unemployment is twice as high, a third said they were no better off financially after unification.... The former West German foreign minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher and former East German foreign minister Markus Mekel said they feared the east-west gap was growing.' (This confirms what I have always believed. The GDR should never have been abolished and its sovereign socialist territory absorbed into the capitalist FRG. The two German states had completely different cultures, political and economic systems. Both have lost out due to reunification under a capitalist economy. Once Socialism has been achieved, however imperfect, you cannot put the clock back to a capitalist system. However Germany COULD be reunited under a genuine democratic Socialist system, because Socialism is the next stage which comes after capitalism. Drastic reform of the GDR economic and political system was needed in 1989, NOT the fate of being absorbed into the capitalist FRG as a source of cheap labor. The territory of the former GDR has also been a drain on FRG resources, because the population of the east have lost their former socialist social security and subsidies, wages are low and unemployment high, so east Germany has to be constantly bailed out by the richer West precisely because the eastern population is being exploited by Western capitalists.)