January 2004 -- A Better World's in Birth

The Socialism Issue

Inside:

• Democracy Matters: Interview with Sam Webb
• Dude Where's My Job?
• Unfinished Business: The Case for the Socialist Market Economy
• Prescription for Socialism
• Our Way: Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics
• Portraits in RED, White and Blue
• Book Review: The Iron Triangle

Sam Webb was elected national chair of the Communist Party USA at the 27th National Convention held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2001. He is formerly of Detroit, Michigan. In this interview he dicusses views on socialism that are being developed for a major essay on the subject. He invites readers to please send in their comments on the ideas in this interview.

Economists are calling the US economic "turnaround" a "jobless recovery" - a term that makes sense only to economists. Shouldn't people's ability to find work be central to any economy? Isn't the point of an economy all about fulfilling human needs, one of which is meaningful work?

In Marxism-Leninism the question of state and economy, plan and market has been often intertwined with the transition period between capitalism (sometimes pre-capitalism) and socialism, and between capitalism and communism. Marx and Engels developed the concept of the transition period and dealt chiefly with its political aspects. They gave comparatively little analysis of the economic tasks of the proletariat after it seized political power.

When physicians and nurses are public employees, hospitals and community health centers are publicly-owned and pharmaceutical drugs, medical equipment and medical supplies are produced by government-owned enterprises and/or purchased at controlled prices – all within a capitalist system – this system is called “socialized medicine.”

It has been 45 years since the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese people under its leadership began to build socialism. The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee convened at the end of 1978 blazed a trail for the building of socialism with Chinese characteristics. This trail wasn’t easily found: it was the result of hard exploration by the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people for half a century and a heavy price was paid.

We have been too long deluded by those who live in ease and grow rich by our productions, and have been blindly led to support men for office whose interest in the present state of society is directly opposed to our own. All our legislators and rulers are nominated by the accumulating class and controlled by their opinions. We have too long been deceived by designing men of both political parties … How long, my fellow workingmen, will we allow ourselves to be deceived?

So spoke William Heighton in an address to workers at a Universalist Church in Philadelphia in 1827.

In a March 2002 interview with Pacifica radio in Berkeley, then Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney of Georgia made headlines.

Editor’s note: Iranian writer Farnoosh Moshiri is the author of two novels, At the Wall of the Almighty (Interlink Publishers) and The Bathhouse (Black Heron Press/Beacon Press). Her recently published collection of short stories is called The Crazy Dervish and the Pomegranate Tree and was put out by Black Heron Press in October. After the revolution that overthrew the Shah in 1979, Moshiri, who had just received her Masters degree in drama from the University of Iowa, returned to Iran. She taught at the College of Dramatic Arts and worked as a dramaturge for the Theatre Division of the Ministry of Culture and Art. She also was politically active and a member of The Council of Writers and Artists of Iran and Women’s Organization. When the fundamentalists seized power by 1981, she was labeled “an enemy of God” and was forced to flee with her two year-old son. “This marked the end of my career as an Iranian playwright,” she says. She teaches college English in Houston, Texas.