I have recently read this book

Essays on Scientific Socialism -McManus, Gordon

( Excerpts from that Book)

·         What became of Scientific Socialism? Is ‘Marxism-Leninism’ the ‘natural’ development from Scientific Socialism?

·         'Globalization' is a phase of Imperialism and thus assert that 'Globalization' is Imperialism'. Is this correct?

·         European countries that took the socialist path after the defeat of fascist Germany and occupation. The system of socialism that developed was based on the ‘model’ in the Soviet Union. The system in the Soviet Union was the ‘state monopoly

·         The ‘state monopoly’ system is where social ownership of the means of production is expressed in ‘state ownership’. This leads to the State becoming the dominant force in the building of socialism. There developed a socialist ‘bureaucracy’ led by the Communist Party to run the economy consisting of ‘state industries’ and ‘state enterprises’.

·         ‘Stalinism’, which was used to ‘justify’ the ‘state monopoly' system that characterized the Soviet system.

·         For Lenin, Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism. There can be no other stage. Lenin’s definition of the ‘economic essence’ of Imperialism was correct at the time he wrote his book.Marx sites ‘monopoly’ in ‘centralization’ whereas Lenin sites ‘monopolies’ in ‘concentration’. This difference between Marx and Lenin is not noted and discussed by ‘Marxism-Leninism’

·         The SACP argues that Globalization is the "quantitative and qualitative development and growth of Imperialism".‘Globalization’ is a term because it does not convey ‘class essence’. He argues that ‘Globalization’ is the third phase of Imperialism which began in the 1990s. Griffiths(Britain party) comes to the aid of the SACP and ‘Marxism-Leninism’

·         Marx was aware that capitalist countries could engage in integration in its mature epoch. It is within this context that I turn to analyse ‘Globalization.General Law of Capitalist Accumulation through its four features or ‘particulars’ which are concentration, centralization, the organic composition of capital and the industrial reserve army

·         See debate between Kautsky and Lenin on the relationship between ‘centralization’ and imperialism

·         Centralisation of the means of production and socialization of labour at last reach a point where they become incompatible with their capitalist integument. This integument is burst asunder. The knell of capitalist private property sounds. The expropriators are expropriated.”

·         The struggle against Imperialism and the socialist transformation of society is not grounded in ‘centralization’ but in ‘concentration by Lenin and that ‘centralization’ as a law did not prevail in Lenin’s time

·         Scientific Socialism argues that ‘centralization’ is the determining element because it represents the economic behaviour of finance capital and the monopolies. Monopolies can no longer be solely grounded in ‘concentration’ as Lenin did in his time.Finance capital not only engages in centralization but it also ‘facilitates’ centralization.Speculative’ finance capital is the means by which finance capital is developing.It is engaged in making money out of money as Marx pointed out in Capital.

·         The State became the dominant factor in the development of socialism in the Soviet Union.

·         The 'State-monopoly' system sites the State as the determining lever, in the working people interests, in the development of socialism.

·         Lenin did not call for the State to take on an economic role. This was Lenin’s means of solving socialist development in Soviet Russia given the 'base-superstructure' relationship.For Lenin, the system of civilized co-operators as the system of socialism was the basis for proletarian dictatorship. This was Lenin’s vision of socialism in Soviet Russia-from Stalin onwards. The emphasis was placed on the State as the determining role in the building of socialism in the USSR.

·         The State became the dominant force in socialist society. Civil Society and economic relations played a subordinate role to the State. This is the lesson to be learnt from adopting the ‘state monopoly’ system as the system of socialism.

·         The question that is raised in the twenty first century is: “What is the system of Socialism?” China is developing its own New Economic Policy which is concerned with using capitalism to further develop the productive forces for examples, Shanghai and Hong Kong.It‘s economy, however, is based on the State monopoly system.

·         It is the working class that builds socialism as pointed out by Lenin not the socialist State.

·         The future of socialism lies in the co-operative movements developing world-wide. It does not lie in 'state ownership' of the means of production and the dominating role of the socialist State in the functioning

·         'Marxism-Leninism' has not learnt the lessons of the failures of the 'state monopoly system' that existed in the Soviet Union based on 'state ownership' or 'public ownership'.Scientific Socialism stands for the co-operative system as the system of socialism. Scientific Socialism does not state that the 'economic essence of socialism' is 'public ownership' or 'state ownership' as 'Marxism-Leninism' does.

·         Marx argued that socialism is the ‘first phase’ of communist society. Marx wrote briefly on socialism. However, he did not argue that socialism was a 'transitional social system' between capitalism and communist society. Gotha Programme Marx argued that socialism or ‘socialist society’ is “co-operative society based on common ownership of the means of production”.

·         The dominant property relations that existed in the Soviet Union, from Stalin to Gorbachev, were ‘state ownership’ or ‘public ownership’ which led to the ‘state monopoly’ system.

·         The ‘state monopoly’ system and its socialist bureaucracy were dominated by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). This was the case in the Soviet Union-that resulted in the ‘alienation’ of the working class in the ‘building of socialism’. The Party became the ‘force of attraction’ in the ‘building of socialism’ not the working class.

·         Scientific Socialism, according to Marx, is concerned with the’ withering away of the State’ which means not ‘strengthening’ the State. Scientific Socialism states that for socialist ‘freedom’ to exist the State must be subordinated to society and not ‘superimposed’ on it.The ‘superimposition’ of the State on Soviet society due to the ‘state monopoly’ system based on ‘state’ ownership and led by the ‘Marxist-Leninist’ Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) resulted in the ‘alienation’ of the working class from the ‘building of socialism’.

·         Under capitalism there is no economic democracy for the worker. Power is in the hands of the capitalist. Under socialism, through economic democracy with ‘one co-operator, one vote’, there is an end to exploitation and shows that the ‘civilized co-operators’ are masters of economic activity under socialism. Through economic democracy based on social ownership of the means of production there is the expression of the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’. Economic democracy through ‘one co-operator’, one vote’ is very important for the expression of the ‘dictatorship of the proletariat’ at the level of the base.

·         The ‘socialist good’ as an economic morality, is an expression of the negation of exploitation from the mode of production. This is the new in the co-operative system as the mode of production of socialism.

·         Socialist morality would have, at its core, the ‘socialist good’ which has its origins in the cooperative mode of production, in ‘co-operative values’ and expresses itself as ‘socialist consciousness’.Socialist morality and socialist legal relations are inter-linked and express how socialist civil society functions on the basis of ‘co-operation’.

·         I came to the slow realization that ‘Globalization’ and ‘Imperialism’ were two different stages of mature monopoly capitalism. This was the first part of my investigation.

·         ‘Marxism-Leninism’ is silent on a number of matters such as capitalist economic integration, ‘centralization’, on the full application of the General Law of Capitalist Accumulation, on the main contradiction of capitalism operating in the epoch of mature monopoly capitalism.

·         It also led me to the conclusion that Globalization, a ‘historical period’, is the new higher stage of mature monopoly capitalism. It was the results of my investigation into such matters that led me to consider that Scientific Socialism is the scientific ideology of the working class not ‘Marxism-Leninism’.