i’m not an ultra, anarchist, etc. so this question isn’t coming from that position and i’d consider my self to be critical when necessary but overall generally pro-china. i can agree with the sentiment that a period of capitalist development is a necessary evil and prerequisite for socialism (can’t seize the means of production without there being means of production) and i understand that china has taken action to curb some of the negative effects that come from capitalist development like unequal development, poverty and homelessness, climate change, etc. but given that they’re projected to become the largest economy in the world here soon (if they aren’t already) and they probably control the biggest chunk of the productive forces, what more do they have to do before they can “press the socialist button” and move towards a more socialist mode of production? what is standing in their way (i guess american intervention maybe? but they’re losing their hegemony)
and my apologies if this has already been asked before
IMO, China is never going to “press the socialism button” because that doesn’t exist. There is no one day Xi (or his successor) will say “that’s enough of capitalism, to the gulag with the billionaires”.
What China will allow for is the natural replacement of the bourgeoisie as the heads of the means of production when they start impeding the growth of the MoP. The proletariat will directly start controlling more and more of the MoP and developing it and that will be socialism. This will happen naturally due to the demand of increased productivity and competition between various capitalist and nation state actors.
In the West, the bourgeoisie will clamp down on such development, thereby hampering the development of their MoP. And thus they will lose.
More further along in the future, the state will take less and less of a role as the guide/leader of this development as that mode of leadership becomes irrelevant and the proletariat is able to guide itself. I but this is after our lifetimes.
It’s the capitalists that are the fetters on capitalism. Once they are irrelevant, with them will disappear private property and thus capitalism. We’ll still have commodity production, markets etc for a little bit. I but yeah, that’s what I think is gonna happen in the next 50-60 years. It’ll happen slowly over time, at first under the aegis of the party (with more freedom at a local level, probably).
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okay yeah that makes, so essentially the workers will slowly and naturally begin to democratize their workplaces and make advances as far as ownership goes with the backing of the chinese state? i’m not really familiar with the section where you discussed the “demand of increased productivity and competition between various capitalist and nation state actors” is there a name for this or somewhere i can read about this?
on board with everything else though, i assume by the state taking less of a role that you’re referring to socialism turning into communism and lenin’s whole “state naturally withering away” from state and rev which yeah i can’t imagine that happening until the majority of the world is socialist
The Communist Manifesto goes into it actually! It shows how the bourgeoise acquired power and how the proletariat will do the same. You should check it out.
One thing to take away: The Communist Party of China studied the fall of the Soviet Union extensively. Their primary goal is to ensure they does not happen to China. They believe that as long as they manage to keep control of the state (which includes the army) they can meet any challenge the West throws at them.
And they know that ultimately the Western model of capitalism, based on exploitation of the Global South, will fail. So, you can expect the “socialism button” to be pressed when that happens. Which means our goal as leftists in the West is to bring about that day as quickly as possible (and be prepared, with strong organisations, to replace capitalism with socialism at home).