Chapter 10 : Problems of the Transition

10. Problems of the Transition

The society we are talking about is not communism, which supposes total freedom, the complete control by people over all their own activities, the absence of any constraint, total abundance – and human beings of a totally different kind.

The society we are talking about is socialism, and socialism is the only transitional society between a regime of exploitation and communism. What is not socialism (as here defined) isn’t a transitional society, but an exploiting society. We might say that any exploiting society is a society of transition, but of transition to another form of exploitation. The transition to communism is only possible if exploitation is immediately abolished, for otherwise, exploitation continues and feeds on itself. The abolition of exploitation is only possible when every separate stratum of order-givers ceases to exist, for in modern societies it is the division into order-givers and order-takers which is at the root of exploitation. The abolition of a separate managerial apparatus means workers’ management in all sectors of social activity. Workers’ management is only possible through new institutions embodying the direct democracy of the producers (the Councils). Workers’ management can only be consolidated and enlarged insofar as it attacks the deepest roots of alienation in all fields and primarily in the realm of work.

In their essence, these views closely coincide with Marx’s ideas on the subject. Marx only considered one kind of transitional society between capitalism and communism, which he called indifferently “dictatorship of the proletariat” or “lower stage of communism.” For him, this society implied an end to exploitation and to a separate state apparatus.

These elementary truths have been systematically hidden or distorted. Let us leave aside the Stalinists, whose historic job it has been to present concentration camps, the absolute power of factory managers, piece-rates and Stakhanovism as the finished products of socialism. The same mystification, in a more subtle but just as dangerous form, has been propagated by the Trotskyists and by Trotsky himself. They have managed to invent an increasing number of transitional societies, slotting more or less happily into one another. Between communism and capitalism, there was socialism. But between socialism and capitalism there was the Workers’ State. And between the Workers’ State and capitalism there was the “degenerated Workers’ State” (degeneration being a process, there were gradations: degenerated, very degenerated, monstrously degenerated, etc.). After the War, according to the Trotskyists, we witnessed the birth of a whole series of “degenerated Workers’ States” (the satellite countries of Eastern Europe), which were degenerated without ever having been Workers’ States. All these gymnastics were performed so as to avoid having to admit that Russia was an exploiting society without a shred of socialism about it, and so as to avoid drawing the conclusion that the fate of the Russian Revolution made it imperative to reexamine all the problems relating to the program and content of socialism, to the role of the proletariat, to the role of the Party, etc.

The idea of a “transitional society” other than a socialist society is a mystification. This is not to say, far from it, that problems of transition do not exist. In a sense, the whole of socialist society is determined by the existence of these problems, and by the attempt of people at solving them. But, problems of transition will also exist in a narrower sense. They will flow from the concrete conditions which will confront the revolution at the start.

For instance, the Revolution might only start in one country, or in one group of countries. As a result, it would have to sustain pressures of a very different kind and duration. On the other hand, however swift the international spread of the revolution, a country’s internal development will play an important role in allowing the principles of socialism to be applied. For example, agriculture might create important problems in France, but not in the USA or Great Britain (where the main problem would be that of the extreme dependence of the country on food imports). In the course of our analysis, we have considered several problems of this kind and hope to have shown that solutions tending in a socialist direction existed in each case.

We have not been able to consider the special problems which would arise if the revolution remained isolated in one country for a long time – and we can hardly do it here. But, we hope to have shown that it is wrong to think that the problems arising from such an isolation are insoluble, that an isolated workers’ power must die heroically or degenerate, or that it can at the most “hold on” while waiting. The only way to “hold on” is to start building socialism, otherwise degeneration has already set in, and the reason for “holding on” is nothing. For workers’ power, the building of socialism from the very first day is not only possible, it is imperative. If it doesn’t take place, the power held has already ceased to be workers’ power.[36]

The program we have outlined is a program for the present, capable of being realized in any reasonably industrialized country. It describes the steps – or the spirit guiding the steps – which the Councils will have to take from the very first weeks of their power, and this, whether this power has spread to several countries or is confined to one. Perhaps, if we were talking about Albania, there would be little we could do. But, if tomorrow in France, or in Britain, or even in Poland (as yesterday in Hungary), Workers’ Councils emerged without having to face a foreign military invasion, they could only:

• federate into a Central Assembly and declare themselves the only power in the land;

• proceed to arm the working class and order the dissolution of the police and of the standing army;

• proclaim the expropriation of the capitalists, the dismissal of all managers, and the taking over of the management of all factories by the workers themselves organized into Workers’ Councils;

• proclaim the abolition of work norms and institute full equality of wages and salaries;

• encourage other categories of workers to form Councils and to take into their own hands the management of their respective enterprises;

• ask, in particular, the workers in government departments to form Councils to proclaim the transformation of these state bodies into enterprises managed by those who work in them;

• encourage the peasants and other self-employed sections of the population to group themselves into Councils and to send their representatives to a Central Assembly;

• proceed to organize a “plan factory” and promptly submit a provisional economic plan for discussion by the local Councils;

• call on the workers of other countries and explain to them the content and meaning of these measures.

All this would be immediately necessary. And, it would contain all that is essential to the building of socialism.