The important contribution that Marx made towards socialism was that he transformed socialism from utopian to scientific socialism. The utopian socialists like Robert Owen, Saint-Simon and Fourier had the greatest of intentions. They thought socialism could be achieved by appealing to the moral side of humans, by propagating ideas that capitalism is cruel and that the accumulation of wealth while immersing large numbers of people in poverty is inhuman. The utopian socialist Robert Owen, who was a factory owner, even set an example by giving up his profits to build housing for his workers and schools for their children. But eventually he died a poor man.
Marx understood that societies change primarily because of changes in the material conditions. If change depends on objective material conditions, then it should follow laws that govern those changes.
Art is different from science. The former is a finished product, while the latter is a work in progress. One cannot change a painting by Da Vinci or Picasso, even if it had a flaw. But science develops by cumulative knowledge added layer by layer over generations and by questioning existing theories through critical examination.
The story goes that a scientist makes a wonderful discovery and wins a Nobel prize. Many magazines carry the scientist’s picture. Schools, colleges and universities invite him for talks. In spite of all the accolades, the scientist knows that something is wrong with his theory and tries to correct it with little success. The scientist grows old and begins to feel that he might die without rectifying the flaw in his theory. One day he goes to a science conference where a young brilliant scientist points out the flaw and puts forward a new theory which rectifies it. The old scientist is delighted, runs up to the young scientist and hugs him. This is the spirit of science: that in spite of his life’s work being proved wrong, one is delighted that science and human society can progress.
What relevance does this story have to our party organisation? Any party which proceeds to achieve scientific socialism needs to follow the spirit of science by critical analysis, objective evaluation of ideas, and by abandoning flawed arguments without mercy. The path to scientific socialism has to be paved with criticism and self-criticism, the foundation of democratic centralism.
Crisis is inevitable in capitalism, but why are communist parties not able to seize the opportunity and overthrow the system? It is because communist parties are fractured and fragmented in every part of the world and fail to inspire hope in the working class. The reason for this fragmentation is the departure from the principles of democratic centralism due to bourgeois tendencies. Democratic centralism means that decisions are made democratically after detailed discussion. Once the decisions are made, individual opinions are subjugated to collective decisions to create a ‘unity of action’. This is not slavery: dissent is allowed during the phase of democratic discussions and not during implementation of decisions. After the implementation of the decision, the result is reviewed impartially; criticism and self-criticism should follow without mercy. So democratic centralism demands the ‘subjugation of the minority to the majority’ during implementation and ‘criticism and self-criticism’ during review. The centralism to implement the decision is not authoritarianism; it is democracy in action. Hence democratic centralism is not an oxymoron – in fact, it is the application of dialectics to party organisation invented by Lenin. Any activity which deviates from this path is a recipe for disaster and will derail a communist party.
The new National Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Ireland after the 27th Congress should resolve to strengthen party discipline and unity and inspire hope in the working class in Ireland.
Peace, independence and socialism.
