'Socialism or Barbarism': The centrality of self-emancipation
"SOCIALISM OR BARBARY" in the 21st century Centrality of individual and collective emancipation Catherine SAMARY http://csamary.fr
I- General remarks: "socialism or barbarism"? Meanings ? What "words" to say our objectives? And who designates what is "barbaric"? Centrality of the criteria of individual and collective emancipation radically egalitarian.
II - Impasses and errors - lessons from the past • Legacies and problematic words. • Rectifications (to be updated and reformulated)
III- What struggles in/against globalized capitalism 1- Actuality of "socialism" / communism - what does it mean ? a) deepening of the critique of capitalism. Communism as a "concrete utopia" against all the oppressive relations of the existing order, from the local to the planetary.
b) The only (pre)conditions concern the socio-political relations (consciousness, mobilizations, power relations) at different territorial scales.
2 - Reform/revolution: how to fight in/against this system? The "transitory logics". • Forces of capitalism. Which state, which institutions, citizenship, "dominant ideology » • Weaknesses, impasses and dilemmas of the "workers' movement" and of revolutionary organizations. Transitional logic, revolutionary crisis and current questions.
3 - Pedagogical stakes - facing opaque words and eclectic and evolving perceptions. How to designate an "other" society, non-capitalist (concrete experience, discussion...).
4 - Basic principles of another society, without "model": what "means" (for whom?) to judge, decide and rectify? Centrality of human relations and "use value" behind the "commons". What criteria of management and distribution, decided by whom, with what democratic institutions, at what territorial level?
Cf. Current campaigns and struggles: saving lives, equal rights, the planet, not profits.