FAREWELL TO MARXISM? - 4

FAREWELL TO MARXISM? - 4

In the transition from "actually" existing socialism

to capitalism, reaction to the political and

ideological terrain of the past has been crucial in

shaping patterns of class struggle (P4). In all East

European countries, with the possible exception

of Bulgaria, ideological discourse has been dominated

by anticommunism, democracy and free

enterprise. The working class has had neither the

ideological space nor the political capacity to

defend its own interests.

If PI, P2, P3 and P4 work better when applied

to state socialism than to advanced ca~itallsmi.t

would seem that the greater challenie is to ~6

and P7. On the face of it the transition from state

socialism to capitalism is a reversal of the progressive

movement from feudalism to capitalism

to communism (P6). But P5 argues that su&essful

transition beyond capitalism can only take place

when the material conditions are present. That

socialism could never emerge in backward Russia

without revolution in the West was a central

tenet of all Marxism from Marx to Kautsky and

Luxemburg, from Plekhanov to Trotsky and Lenin.

Only Stalin believed in the possibility of

socialism in the Soviet Union.

More interesting and more profound is the

challenge to W: As the last antagonistic mode of

production, capitalism brings the prehistory of

human society to a close. As we have seen,

competing interpretations of this postulate have

traditionally revolved around the possibility of

arriving at communism, which divides into two

issues: first, the likelihood of the demise of capitalism,

and second, given the demise of capitalism

the likelihood of the rise of cornrnu&sm.

German Marxism believed in the inevitable demise

of capitalism and the possible emergence of

communism. Russian Marxism was less sure of

the collapse of capitalism and more sure of the

path to communism if it did collapse, while critical

theory's belief in the durability of capitalism

turned communism into a utopian vision.

Today, belief in the possibility of a communist

future is under more intense assault. Not only is

the path to communism blocked but the very viability

of such a society is called into question.

The open attack on Marxism-Leninism in the

Soviet Union, its burial in Eastern Europe, and

the movement toward a world wide hegemony

of capitalism on the other are all presented as

evidence against the feasibility of socialism. Although

we have a great deal to learn from the

experience of state socialism, it would be fallacious

to conclude from the failure of but one of

its forms that socialism in general is impossible.

At least such a claim would have to (1) explain

state socialism's successes (under the most adverse

circumstances) and not just its failures, and

(2) demonstrate that the combination of public

owners hi^ with democratization and markets is

either infeasible or would not solve the econom--

ic problems of socialism. This has been the lost

opportunity of Eastern Europe -lost because

s&e socialism so effecti~el~discrediteitds own

ideology and because it equally effectively demobilized

its working class.

Disillusioned by events not turning out as they

had hoped, each generation of Marxists writes its

own The God That Failed (Crossman 1949).

AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW

Marxism, however, lives on because new generations

are continually drawn to its compelling

heuristics, both its hard core and its belts of theory

(see, for example, Gouldner 1985, Part 111).

In the short run, the demise of state socialism

may threaten the viability of the Marxist project,

but in the long run I believe Marxism's vitality is

assured. First, the demise of state socialism will

liberate Marxism from the corrosive effects of

Soviet Marxism, its most degenerate branch. In

particular, the debate over the possible meaning

of socialism as well as the shortcomings of state

socialism will no longer be bound by Marxist-

Leninist orthodoxy and its disdain for alternative

blue-prints. Second, since capitalism shows no

signs of finding solutions to its own irrationalities,

there will be a continual stimulus to search for

socialist solutions. Third, Marxism still provides

a fecund understanding of capitalism's inherent

contradictions and dynamics. With the ascendancy

of capitalism on a world scale, Marxism

will therefore, once more, come into its own. In

these ways, the longevity of capitalism guarantees

the longevity of Marxism. They are like siamese

twins -the demise of the one depends on the

demise of the other.