Yoshie Furuhashi wrote: > > > I don't have a settled view on the matter yet. I've always taken > seriously what people who think like Justin Schwartz (who used to be > here and may be still lurking) have said (if he is here, he should > jump in). One thing that I agree with Justin, without sharing his > enthusiasm for Hayek, market socialism, liberal democracy, etc., is > that Marxists have skirted this tough but important question of the > philosophy of justice under a socialist state. Dodging the question > doesn't do, imho.
Rights in any hypothetical socialist state depend on the political power of local 'Revolutionary Committees' or whatever you call them (a) to maintain democracy and political rights within their own ranks and (b) to maintain independence from central state agencies in respect to their voice in regional and national bodies. I do not see any way in which constitutional machinery can automatically guarantee civil rights. As in the case of women's rights in a socialist state which we discussed recently, this depends mostly on what happens within the various socialist groupings during the contest with capital and prior to the creation of socialist power. Constitution writers might focus on the rhetorical force of their document. That is, the document as such with its enumeration of rights is merely a piece of paper. But if the _rhetoric_ is right (and if enough fuss is made prior to and early in the establishment of socialist power) that rhetoric can be enlisted in the struggles mentioned above. ALSO essential (and it is not too early to make a continuing fuss) is the point Sweezy made some years ago: there is no science of socialism. In so far as decisions are _really_ made collectively and democratically, no scientific "laws" can dictate those decisions. Checkout today's comic strip (Chicago Tribune), "Brewster Rockit: Space Guy." Brewster is arguing, "I say it's time to amend the law of gravity! Why should helium be exempt?" That is, scientific questions are not to be decided by political debate and struggle, so if there are "scientific laws" of socialism, then the workers do not have the right through political means to change those laws. There are laws of capitalist economy, but not of a socialist economy. (Probably not of various pre-capitalist modes of production either.) Carrol
