What Will Communism Look Like? — Analytical Summary

Spectre Of Communism · 2023-11-14

Core Argument

The central thesis of this episode is that a socialist economy is not only possible but already prefigured within capitalism itself. The argument proceeds through a dialectical inversion: the very features that make capitalism intolerable — monopoly, planning within firms, technological development — contain the material foundations for a rational, democratic, planned economy. The episode claims that the question is not whether planning can work, but who controls it and for what purpose. Under capitalism, the immense productive forces and logistical capacities developed by multinational corporations serve profit; under common ownership and workers' democracy, they could serve human need. The episode therefore rejects the claim that socialism is a speculative utopia, arguing instead that it is the rational extension of tendencies already present within the capitalist mode of production.

Theoretical Grounding

The analysis draws on several interconnected Marxist concepts:

Monopoly capitalism and the dialectic of planning and anarchy. The episode builds on Marx and Engels' observation in Capital and the Communist Manifesto that free competition gives way to monopoly, and that within these monopolies, enormous planning takes place — yet between them, the market remains anarchic. This is a direct application of Lenin's analysis of state monopoly capitalism in Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism. The argument is that socialism would generalise the planning already existing within firms across the whole economy, resolving the contradiction between planned production within the enterprise and anarchy in the market as a whole.

The state as a class instrument. Following Engels' The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State and Lenin's State and Revolution, the episode treats the state not as a neutral arbiter but as "armed bodies of men in defence of private property". The argument for smashing the bourgeois state apparatus and replacing it with a workers' state — one that begins to wither away as class distinctions dissolve — is orthodox Marxist-Leninist.

The theory of value and the commodity form. The discussion of money's future under socialism is grounded in Marx's analysis of the commodity, value, and money in Capital Volume I. Money is understood as a measure of value, and value as socially necessary labour time embodied in commodities. If production is no longer for exchange but for direct use under a common plan, the basis for the commodity form dissolves, and with it, the basis for money.

The contradiction between forces and relations of production. The episode's treatment of automation and AI explicitly deploys Marx's analysis in the chapter on "Machinery and Large-Scale Industry" in Capital Volume I: technology under capitalism does not liberate workers but intensifies exploitation and creates a reserve army of labour. The argument is that this contradiction can only be resolved by transforming the social relations of production.

The episode sits firmly within the Marxist-Leninist tradition, with particular debts to Trotsky's writings on the transitional programme and the nature of the workers' state. It is explicitly anti-reformist: the argument that a left government without control over the commanding heights of the economy would be sabotaged by capital is a direct echo of Trotsky's analysis of the Spanish Popular Front and the lessons of the 1930s.

Conjunctural Relevance

The episode connects its theoretical argument to the current conjuncture in several specific ways:

The inflation crisis. The episode points to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis as evidence that the market system cannot reliably provide goods and services at affordable prices. This is framed not as a policy failure but as an inherent feature of capitalism — a crisis of overproduction expressed through rising prices.

The pandemic response. The massive state intervention during COVID-19 — paying wages, distributing vaccines — is cited as a tacit admission by the capitalist class that planning is superior to the market in moments of crisis. The episode argues that this demonstrates the feasibility of planning while also exposing its class character: the state intervenes to save capitalism, not to serve the working class.

The energy crisis and bank bailouts. The 2008 financial crisis and recent state support for the energy sector are presented as further evidence that capitalism cannot survive without the capitalist state propping it up, with the bill presented to the working class in the form of austerity.

Automation and AI. The episode references the Hollywood writers' strike and the displacement of both blue-collar and white-collar workers by AI and automation. This is presented as the contemporary form of the contradiction Marx identified: technology that could reduce the working day instead intensifies exploitation and creates unemployment.

The housing crisis. The existence of empty homes alongside homelessness is used as a concrete illustration of capitalism's irrationality — "poverty amidst plenty" — and as evidence that the material basis for solving basic needs already exists.

Where the Argument Continues

The episode deliberately leaves several questions open, pointing to where the argument develops further in the broader corpus:

The state apparatus in detail. The episode acknowledges that the police, army, courts, and media "deserve their own episode". This is a clear invitation to future instalments of the Spectre of Communism podcast. The theoretical foundation for this discussion is already laid in Lenin's State and Revolution, but the concrete application to contemporary institutions would require further development.

The Soviet experience. Adam Booth's article in In Defence of Marxism issue 43, on the trials and tribulations of the Soviet planned economy, is explicitly referenced as a companion piece. The episode draws lessons from the Soviet experience — particularly the superiority of planning demonstrated by the USSR's industrialisation — but also implicitly acknowledges its limitations, which the article presumably explores in greater depth.

The transition from socialism to communism. The episode distinguishes between socialism (a transitional society with a workers' state, money, and classes) and communism (a classless, stateless, moneyless society of superabundance). The process of transition — how the productive forces are developed to the point where the basis for value, money, and the state withers away — is gestured at but not fully elaborated. This is a central question in Marxist theory, addressed by Marx in the Critique of the Gotha Programme and by Trotsky in The Revolution Betrayed.

The international dimension. The episode notes that communism would be a world system, but does not develop the argument about how socialist construction in one country relates to world revolution. This is a major theoretical question that runs through the Marxist tradition, from Trotsky's theory of permanent revolution to the debates on socialism in one country.

Connections

Primary texts: - Marx, Capital Volume I, especially the chapter on "Machinery and Large-Scale Industry" - Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (on the distinction between lower and higher phases of communism) - Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State - Lenin, State and Revolution - Lenin, Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism - Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed (on the nature of the Soviet state and the transition)

Contemporary texts: - The People's Republic of Walmart (the book referenced in the episode, which argues that capitalist logistics prefigure socialist planning) - In Defence of Marxism issue 43, containing Adam Booth's article on the Soviet economy

Other episodes: - The episode with Ben from Socialist Appeal on the state (referenced in the episode) - Future Spectre of Communism episodes on the police, army, courts, and media under socialism

Key Quotes

1. "Under capitalism you have free competition giving way and turning into monopoly capitalism, and within these monopolies you have enormous levels of planning taking place... but then between these big firms it's complete anarchy under the market. Socialism would basically try and utilise all this planning, all this technology, all these techniques, all this science and logistics — but we'd be using it in the interests of society rather than for the profits of the bosses."

2. "You can't really plan what you don't control, and you don't control what you don't own."

3. "The apologists of capitalism who level these kind of accusations at us are the ones who are actually defending a system that isn't able to do any of these things that they claim it can... we have homelessness alongside empty homes, enormous amounts being produced and yet hunger and poverty. It's a situation as Marx described of poverty amidst plenty under capitalism."

4. "The state is a product of class society. It's a tool in the hands of the ruling class for upholding inequality and exploitation and for protecting the interests of the ruling class... Lenin said, quoting Engels, that in the final analysis the state can be reduced to armed bodies of men in defence of private property."

5. "Under capitalism technology doesn't liberate us, it enslaves us... Marx explained all of this 150 years ago in Capital. He has a whole chapter on the machine and he talks about how technology is not used to improve the living standards of the working class under capitalism — it's used to increase the profits of the capitalist."