Socialism Seriously, A Brief Guide to Surviving the 21st Century
Danny Katch, Haymarket 2023
How to Achieve Socialism? — -Reform or Revolution?
Do Socialist Office Holders Further the Cause of Socialism?
Socialism Seriously, A Brief Guide to Surviving the 21st Century is another entertaining and provocative introduction to socialism by Danny Katch. Danny has made a career of bringing people around socialist ideas with humor, sarcasm, and self-deprecating humility. His writing style is engaging. The book is a real page turner! This book follows from the original Socialism Seriously published in 2014.
His depictions of life under “socialism” are very imaginative and make his commitment to democracy very clear. The examples are about a society shortly after a socialist revolution, the period of a transition to what Marx called the higher stage of communism. The politics that the author tries to put forth are in the tradition of “socialism from below” or revolutionary socialism flowing from the politics of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Luxemburg, and Trotsky
His introduction to socialist ideas include presentations on class reductionism, religion, organization, Stalinism, Anarchism, Liberalism, Social Darwinism, women’s oppression, racism, Native Liberation, Ecology, privacy, “espionage” and whistle blowing, conspiracy theory, class definitions, rightist ideas among workers, solidarity, definition of revolution, borders and constitutions, U.S. history, Trotskyism, left sectarianism, campism, boredom under socialism etc. These are all woven together in a conversational style. All these contributions are interesting and provocative.
Though his political orientation informs his presentation, Socialism Seriously doesn’t sharply argue for one wing within socialism. Most socialists in the U.S. today would describe themselves as Democratic Socialists. They believe that socialism can come from elections and government intervention in the economy. This tendency is best exemplified by Democratic Socialists of America, DSA. Others identify with the top-down tradition of Stalinism — -economies owned by the state but run by a ruling bureaucracy. Adherents of this view often look to Cuba, China and even North Korea as good examples of socialist societies. These societies were called state capitalist by the organization the author was a part of ,the International Socialist Organization. Stalinism, Democratic Socialism and European Social Democracy are clearly different from the revolutionary Marxist view of socialism that the author hails from. The Revolutionary Marxist tradition emphasizes the need to eliminate the capitalist state and defines socialism as the “self-emancipation of the working class” not just government ownership of the economy.
Unfortunately, the author’s attempt to describe socialism in general rather than argue sharply for a particular view of socialism and how to achieve it leads to confusion. For example, he explains that the state in capitalist society is committed to the interests of the capitalist class, and notes that
“No ruling class in history has ever let itself be replaced without a fight” (144)
He sees the need for revolution which he defines as
“…a more condensed process in which large numbers of people go beyond the accepted norms of political action in order to change the government — -sometimes creating an entirely new political or economic system, more often just replacing who is in charge.”(140)
On the other hand, the author implies that maybe elections and not revolution is one viable path to socialism:
“Those attempts by radicals in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Brazil to advance socialism through elected governments backed by social movements had only limited success. .. These attempts, though so far unsuccessful, have at least put the idea of socialist governments back in the public imagination.” (172)”
This implies that these “ so far unsuccessful “ attempts at electing socialism through the capitalist state might someday be successful.
This general confusion on whether revolution is needed is echoed in Danny’s analysis of the Democratic Party. He says:
“Both major parties are devoted to the priorities of the tiny class that runs the country” (80)
Then he weakens that statement by adding “with the important but small exception of the new socialist wing inside the Democrats”.
In fact, the “socialist wing inside the Democrats” has shown itself to be committed to the capitalist priorities of the Democratic Party. It supports military budgets, aid to Israel and preventing railroad workers from striking. It is as “devoted to the priorities of the tiny class that runs the country” as other Democrats are.
The problem with giving the “socialist wing” of the Democrats a pass is that it allows them to continue to play their role of left cover for the rest of the Party. Support for the Democratic Party is a source of sharp debate among socialists and other activists. Many activists including many railroad workers call for an independent labor party. The author’s support of the “socialist wing” of the Democrats reinforces the political status quo instead of breaking with it.
Why does the author present contradictory views of key questions facing socialists? Part of the answer is that he seems to think any spreading of socialist ideas is a good thing. He credits Bernie Sanders, the Squad, and the Pink Tide governments of Latin America with making socialism more well known. Yet these self-described socialists have also discredited socialism among many radical activists. The Squad and Bernie’s support for suppressing the rail strike has led some workers to look for support among the Right Wing. The Pink Tide governments have been engaged in suppressing the more radical struggles of indigenous people and workers against “extractivism” and austerity. Strike breaking military supporters are not good emissaries of socialism! Socialism will triumph as a radical, revolutionary alternative to the conservative/liberal status quo, or it will not win at all.
In other parts of the book, Danny understands the potential discrediting of socialism by those who claim to be its adherents:
Now we are facing the opposite problem. Socialism isn’t so radical at all you’ll hear. Hell, we already have socialism in the form of government run post offices … Some of the people making these arguments think they are helping our movement by making the dreaded S-word seem less scary to mainstream voters…. But at a time when the status quo is miserable and capitalism is destroying the only planet we have to live on, it’s a terrible strategy to point at the crumbling world and say,” I’m not sure you realized it, but actually, this is socialism” (176)
This excellent statement should apply to giving political support to DSA members in Congress who support Democratic Party priorities. A major cause of the rise of the Right among workers has been the disastrous record of Democrats in office. The concentration of wealth has only increased under Democrats. Living standards have declined. Social services have deteriorated. To be successful, socialism must be seen as a radical alternative to liberalism, not an extension of it. Otherwise, radically dissatisfied people will often turn to what they see as a radical alternative on the Right.
This means that revolutionary socialists, need to clearly present their view of what socialism is and how to achieve it. We need to argue against supporting even those who claim to be socialists when they reinforce capitalist priorities.
Today in the U.S., millions of people support socialism of one sort or another. This has been true since the Great Recession of 2008–9. The key task is to win as many of these people as possible to a clear, compelling, revolutionary vision of socialism and how to achieve it . Even winning new people to the idea of socialism will be easier if it is clear what we mean by socialism. Presenting contradictory views on these questions may seem more open and inviting, but it is just confusing.
This book has a lot to recommend it. The writing is beautiful. The descriptions of “socialist” society are imaginative and interesting. The issues discussed are wide ranging and stimulating. However, for an introduction to socialist ideas that is less confusing and more clearly focused on revolutionary socialism look to the 2014 version of Socialism Seriously!
