The Revolution that Wasn't

http://www.theoryandpractice.org.uk/library/revolution-wasn%E2%80%99t-pieter-lawrence-2008
Date Written:  1988-05-01
Publisher:  Theory and Practice
Year Published:  1988
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX20268

An essay about radical history, revolution and socialism.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

The idea that workers cooperatives under workers' control is socialism or is in any way a step towards socialism is an illusion.

Bringing the subject back to 1968 when these arguments were much more in the air of course members of the Socialist Party were encouraged by the fact that a lot of action was taking place. But at the same time there was great disappointment that all this protest was being diverted into this useless activity based on the objective of workers' control.

The only practical way to get a change from capitalism to socialism is to have a majority of socialists acting democratically to capture control of the state and then from this position of control, to remove the capitalist features from social production through the enactment of common ownership.