Like what did Lenin or Marx have to say about worker agency? Is it all assigned by the state? Based on skill? Endless battery of tests to place people? Loyalty?

  • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]
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    4 years ago

    I recently read an article on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics which included this neat line

    Western liberals think in terms of quarterly reports and election cycles. Eastern communists think in terms of centuries, if not millennia.

    While I think the East/West division is unnecessary for my point, I feel the liberal/communist distinction highlights an interesting divide. Marxism, and by extension Marxism-Leninism, is a study of historical periods. The long trends of history which may take place over centuries. It is also firmly rooted in materialism, which means we can only predict what is next from the current conditions and past trends. We can predict that the dictatorship of the proletariat will replace the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie because we see the relationship between these two classes as well as the proletarianization of all other classes and how the bourgeoisie overcame their feudal predecessors as the leading class over the last five hundred years or so. We cannot however, predict the exact administrative functions of higher stage communism. We do not know what lower stage communism looks like and we do not know what the conditions will exist at the end of that period or even our current one. Capital could reign another five hundred years or it could collapse tomorrow. The transitional stage could take centuries, or freed from the burden of imperialism, mere decades. By the time we reach higher stage communism the Seychelles will very likely be landless and Siberia could be quite pleasant. We might be freed from the burden of landed agriculture among other forms of grueling labor through technological developments. Things could and likely will be so different that we would struggle to recognize them, just as Marx would likely struggle to understand the internet if he arose from the dead today.

    If we are to take a stab at your question however, we can use the definitions Marx lays out about labor being life's prime want and Lenin's dissolution of the political nature of the state to ascertain that there will likely be someone who is happy to live in Siberia and dedicate a few hours labor a week to agriculture or perhaps the burden can be collectively shouldered somehow. Perhaps the people of Siberia would be happy to stay there and farm undisturbed by the outside world or aided by its amenities. These are questions we cannot give direct answers to, but we can predict in broad strokes.

    Edit: I would like to add as well that there is always the possibility that the "higher stage of communism" is something that we may never actually be able to reach, but should nonetheless struggle towards.