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Subject: Review "Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty-First Century"
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http://www.socialistvoice.ca/Review/Lebowitz.htm
IN REVIEW
Michael A. Lebowitz. Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty-First
Century. Monthly Review Press. New York, 2006. 127 pages
Reviewed by James Haywood
This book consists of several talks and essays written by Michael
Lebowitz during 2004 and 2005, years in which he participated
first-hand in the Bolivarian movement in Venezuela. Since its release,
his new book has had a significant impact in Venezuela, and was
recently featured by President Hugo Chavez in his regular television
show "Alo Presidente!"
Lebowitz's book aims to flesh out the concept of 21st Century
socialism made famous by Chavez and the Bolivarians counterposing
it to both Stalinism and social democracy.
This book should have a place in every socialist's collection. It
relates basic conceptions of Marxism to the Venezuelan process today.
However, a failure to look at the experience of Soviet Russia in
Lenin's time and the Cuban revolution make this book, at times,
somewhat abstract.
Marxism is a political act
The book starts with an outstanding introduction to basic Marxist
theory. Lebowitz stresses that Marx "wrote Capital as a political act,
as part of his revolutionary project." (page 29) In other words
Marxism does not view the world through a set agenda of formulas.
Marxism is about using and developing theories in response to reality.
Lebowitz goes on to explore the main ideologies justifying capitalism,
specifically neoclassical economics and theories associated with the
British economist J.M. Keynes. His discussion of Keynesianism is of
greater interest because of its influence in the workers' movement. In
brief, its basic concept is that "workers could gain without capital
losing." (page 35) Both approaches are essentially alike, Lebowitz
says: they propose different mechanisms for the government to "support
capital's requirements" in order to "make capital happy to invest."
(page 37) The labour movement needs a true alternative, Lebowitz says,
based on stimulating "the solidarity that comes from an emphasis upon
the interests of the community rather than self-interest." (page 42)
Lebowitz convincingly describes how such a policy, carried out by a
government with mass support, could create "non-capitalist sectors" in
the economy (e.g. state-run enterprises) which could defend such a
government against a "capital strike" by the bosses a clear
reference to the Venezuelan experience.
In Lebowitz's view, Third World countries like Venezuela can achieve
"endogenous development" which serves the interests of the
population, not imperialism "but only if a government is prepared to
break ideologically and politically with capital, only if it is
prepared to make social movements actors in the realization of an
economic theory based upon the concept of human capacities." (page 42)
Alternatives?
Lebowitz claims that the biggest obstacle to socialism is "TINA"
(There Is No Alternative), i.e. the idea pounded into the mentality of
workers and exploited in Latin America is there is nothing worth
fighting for. But surely Cuba is on their doorstep as a living
example? Unfortunately there is no mention of Cuba at all.
Lebowitz does well to refute the anti-statist conception that all
governments are necessarily repressive, using Venezuela as an example.
He also attacks the Stalinist model, represented above all by the
Soviet Union. Interestingly, rather than attack the undemocratic
political system, he criticizes the Soviet Union from a different
angle:
"The Soviet Union took the form of immense factories, mills and
collective farms.
We must acknowledge that small enterprises may both
permit greater democratic control from below (thus developing the
capacities of the producers) and might better preserve an environment
that can serve the needs of the people." (page 71-72)
More fundamentally, he warns, "socialism cannot be achieved from above
through the efforts and tutelage of a vanguard that seizes all
initiatives and distrusts the self-development of the masses." (page
72) Surely this bold statement is aimed against not only Stalinism but
elements within Chavez's own movement who consider themselves above
and beyond the masses.
The Yugoslav Experience
Another section of the book, entitled "Seven Difficult Questions,"
poses tasks for the Venezuelan movement for workers' control by
discussing the Yugoslav experience of "self-management." Lebowitz
provides detailed information on an experience not often discussed
within the left, taking up problems such as factory competition,
managerial responsibilities, and the politicization of workers.
Among his fresh and challenging questions: "What responsibility do
workers in self-managed enterprises have for the unemployed and the
excluded? Who is responsible for creating jobs?" (page 79)
Still, he appears to evade the central problem: Yugoslavia was ruled
by a privileged bureaucracy, in the Stalinist mode, which
depoliticized its working class.
Lebowitz does well to point to the fact that self-management in and of
itself is not socialist. The final question, which takes this up, is
called, "How can solidarity between worker-managed enterprises and
society as a whole be incorporated directly into those enterprises?"
(page 83) Small worker-managed factories can and have existed under
capitalism, he points out. What makes the character of this socialist
is how production is intertwined with the needs of society: is the
enterprise running to make a profit or as part of a planned economy to
meet people's needs?
In Yugoslavia, he says, the "focus was on self-interest rather than
the interests of the working class as a whole." (page 84)
Venezuela Today
Lebowitz's book comes alive when he takes up the Venezuelan revolution
today. He provides a brief but effective account of how the Bolivarian
movement led by Hugo Chávez evolved from his early days in power as
a champion of a capitalist "third way," through the right-wing
lock-out and coup attempts, where he saw the power of independent
mobilizations by working people.
The insights are fresh and compelling, reflecting Lebowitz's
experience as a socialist living in Venezuela, deeply imbedded in its
revolutionary process.
He stresses that "the traditional organized working class [has been]
less of an actor in this revolution" than the poor in the
neighbourhoods. (page 102) But this changed to some extent after
the lockout and the formation of a militant union federation (the
UNT). Examples are given of workers taking over abandoned or
capital-starved factories and managing the workplaces themselves.
Lebowitz warns that "there is nothing inevitable about whether the
Bolivarian Revolution will succeed in building that new society or
whether it will lapse into a new variety of capitalism with populist
characteristics. Only struggle will determine this." (page 116)
And the greatest barrier in this struggle comes, he says, from "people
wearing the red shirt who are opposed to the revolution." The greatest
threat comes "from within the Bolivarian Revolution itself." (page
115)
Lebowitz also argues that "the Bolivarian Revolution has also put
Marxism back on the agenda." This is certainly true, but the book
would have been strengthened by considering the relationship of the
Venezuelan movement to Cuba, which boldly put Marxism on the agenda 46
years ago. This relationship has found expression both on the plane of
ideas and materially, through the tens of thousands of Cuban medical
and other experts serving in Venezuela.
The book closes by touching on Che Guevara, For Che recognized "that
it is necessary to act vigorously to eliminate the categories of the
old society, particularly the lever of material interest, and to build
the new human being." Lebowitz says that "Che's Marxism is embodied in
the Bolivarian revolution." (pages 117-18)
Lebowitz's book is far from clear on how this is to be done.
Paraphrasing Marx, he says "the idea of human society is sufficient to
defeat the idea of barbarism." (page 52) and calls for "governments
who "reject the logic of capital." He avoids reflection on previous
revolutionary experiences in Russia, Cuba, and elsewhere. If this
sounds a bit vague, it may reflect the evolution of the Venezuelan
process itself. Recent speeches by Chávez have been more specific on
the need to build a new state apparatus based on the masses (see
Socialist Voice #108)
But the book has an overriding merit. It explains why we are fighting
capitalism. Do we just want an end to war and better wages? Lebowitz
argues that our goal is nothing less than the full development of
human potential, something capitalism just cannot achieve. Lebowitz's
socialism is one that rejects social democracy and Stalinism; it is a
socialism based on workers' democracy. The task now is to build
parties and movements that can make this idea a reality.
