A Socialist Society frees the people from the ravages of international finance and commerce. The first step towards achieving a Socialist society is to withdraw from the Stock Market, denying any speculative interests access to the country, and forbidding all members of the nation from engaging in the same in other countries. In an ideal world, the entire Global Stock Market system would cease to exist, but as realists we have to accept that it is beyond our power to control Global affairs, and also to attempt to do so would enmesh us in the exact Globalism we are trying to free our people from.
The myth created by capitalists is that there is no room for trading in a Socialist country. This is a lie. Under Socialism, the people are freed from wage slavery and are given the opportunity to trade with one another as individuals, as artisans and as producers of goods which are sold to the advantage of all. The real market (the local farmers' market, the flea market, the traditional everyday market of the town square) flourishes under Socialism. Socialism prevents people exploiting one another. The confusion begins with a failure to understand that Socialism and Communism are not the same.
Under Socialism, the people are free from the forces of exploitation. Having a guaranteed home, of a size which allows for life to be enjoyed, contrasts greatly with the horrific system of capitalism in which the threat (or reality) of homelessness blights the lives of millions in this country alone. Precious time is wasted in jobs which are hated, to pay for a basic house or flat, which can be taken away if the job which brings so much misery and social conflict, comes to an end. Of course, in a Socialist Society, people will be expected to contribute for the benefit of the whole. But work will be tailored to the needs of the people, and with the localisation of the economy, the end of commuting and reduced working hours will allow for greater quality of life both inside and outside the workplace.
So where does the market come into this? A free people, unburdened by the need to work themselves to death to keep a squalid roof over their heads, is a happier people. A happier people - especially a people with space at home for productive workshops and land for basic farming - is a people who have the freedom, opportunity, and elevated attitude of mind, suited to the production of works of art, of self-produced goods, of food stuffs and many more things besides. The market, or more appropriately, the Market Place, becomes a place for people to meet and to exchange the products of their own individual labour. Working for oneself as a means for exploring one's artistic and creative abilities, with no element of exploitation at any level, brings benefits to the people as a whole, encouraging organic culture and uniting the people at the local level by allowing the exchange of goods produced by self-respecting honest toil.
By keeping the Market Place local, the interaction of the people can be an aid to social cohesion. The futility of competition, with all the inherent dangers of sliding into the pursuit of profit for the sake of it, can be held in abeyance by keeping the emphasis on local produce for local trade. Markets must be entirely voluntary, subject to no charges such as rent for space, with an expected development being specialisation and barter, rather than production of shoddy goods for sale at prices which do not reflect the time and effort of the individual producer. The Market Place must be a free space for the enjoyment of all, not a place for financial gain, not a place of work, but of joy and pride in one's accomplishments and the accomplishments of one's friends and neighbours. In the case of predatory capitalist exploitative tendencies arising, it is the responsibility of the State to put a stop to them.
The Market Place forms apart of the natural order, against the globalist materialist system of sterile uniformity and profit-seeking as a means of control or of survival. A restoration of the organic cooperative market is a factor in the abolition of the un-natural, anti-human malaise which we find ourselves fighting against.
"That which is now to be expropriated is no longer the labourer working for himself, but the capitalist exploiting many labourers. This expropriation is accomplished by the action of the immanent laws of capitalistic production itself, by the centralisation of capital. One capitalist always kills many. Hand in hand with this centralisation, or this expropriation of many capitalists by few, develop, on an ever-extending scale, the cooperative form of the labour process, the conscious technical application of science, the methodical cultivation of the soil, the transformation of the instruments of labour into instruments of labour only usable in common, the economising of all means of production by their use as means of production of combined, socialised labour, the entanglement of all peoples in the net of the world market, and with this, the international character of the capitalistic regime."
(Karl Marx - Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume One, Chapter Thirty-two )
Good article.
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