Essay:Roadmap to Communism

ROADMAP TO COMMUNISM

By Aria

Edited by bestie Willow

A common discourse within the left has been the adequate transition from our current capitalist society to a communist one. The main point of contention arises between the statists (Marxist-Leninists primarily) and the anti-statists (the anarchists). The statists believe that the best path to achieve a stateless communist society is through more centralisation, when history proves only leads to more capitalism. The Anarchists and Libertarian Socialists believe in a decentralisation towards statelessness. The anarchist method of immediate statelessness is one whose practicality needs to be called into question however. In light of all that, the purpose of this document is to synthesise a proper transition from our current society to our ideal communist society.

THE THREE STAGES OF SOCIETY

For the sake of simplicity, we'll divide the transformation of society into 3 stages:

1. The Dictatorship of The Bourgeoisie (DOTB)

2. The Dictatorship of The Proletariat (DOTP)

3. A Purely Communist Society (PCS)

Now, we shall start with a rundown of how this transition is to be done.

Stage One: The Dictatorship of The Bourgeoisie

The DOTB refers to our present-day capitalist society, with wealth, power, and control over the means of production concentrated in the hands of a few, a la the bourgeoisie, the owning class.

The first step of our programme will be a complete upheaval of this system. This should be done both by direct attacks on the bourgeois class, and by attacking the systems which have propped them up, liberal democracy and so on. The revolution is to be carried out by means of using the existing party infrastructure and building workers councils, which shall be instrumental afterwards. The real meat of our programme lies in what follows this stage.

Stage Two: Dictatorship of The Proletariat.

The DOTP is what shall follow the revolution and is the most important of the three stages. The success of the DOTP determines the achievement of the PCS. The DOTP is to have two main phases.

Phase 1: Early Stage Socialism

This is meant to cover the immediate years following the fall of the DOTB. The society will be completely upheaved and quick measures must be taken to ensure stability. The workers' councils established during the revolution will become the main backbone of society; and the party, after completing its goal of guiding the revolution, will dissolve itself after the councils are established on the national level.

The organisation of the councils should be as follows:

The Local Councils

These shall exist at the city and town levels and act as the workers representation there, in this bottom up democracy the power lies with these councils.

The State Councils

These exist at the state level and are elected from among members of the local councils of the various cities and towns of the state.

The Supreme Council.

This shall exist at the national level, elected from among members of the state council of the states in the nation.

They shall elect the head of state, the Prime Councillor from among their members.

The term limit for each council member will be two terms, with five years per term, in order to keep the Council rotating and avoid stagnation. The head of state, the Prime Councillor, shall have only one term, of five years.

Since we're intending to build a decentralised, bottom-up, largely horizontal democracy, with some slight verticality, all higher-level councils are held accountable to the local councils, and by extension the people. Anyone can participate in the councils, and the local councils have the right to know the financial spending of the higher levels and all political activities taken by them, to ensure power remains with the people.

The people shall have the authority to dismiss a Council member, should they act against the interests of the proletariat.

This system intends to create a slowly decentralising government that will eventually outgrow the need for the Supreme Council, with State Councils vanishing thereafter.

The education and economic systems shall be overhauled to prepare the people for the end stage.

As for currency, we shall slowly de-incentivise its use, by improving production, and making the need for money obsolete; though currency will still exist in this early stage.

All of this is the goal of the first phase of the DOTP.

Phase 2: Late Stage Socialism.

This refers to the final years of the DOTP, as a result of the new socialist programme people will have developed the ability to lead a society on their own. The Supreme Council and all other higher levels of government would have been outgrown by the populace. Currency as a whole would have disappeared, as production will have managed to meet the needs of the populace without the need for a mode of exchange. With the need for these organs waning, our socialist society will gear itself for the final stage.

Stage 3: Pure Communist Society

This stage will be characterised by the complete dissolution of all central authority, and the end goal

of the slow decentralisation programme will be achieved. A true stateless, classless, moneyless society where all are one, united by the common cause of communism will arise from the ashes of the DOTP. Should this stage be reached, it means the programme was indeed a success and we would have succeeded where past socialist experiments failed.

All power to the proletariat!