3.3.25

Communism as de-alienation

 
Eradicating Capitalism in a Communist State

The problem of de-alienation of economic life cannot be solved by the mere abolition of private property. The transformation of private property into state property does not introduce an essential change in the situation of the worker, or the producer. The de-alienation of economic life also requires the abolition of state property, its transformation into real social property, and this cannot de achieved without organizing the whole of social life on the basis of the self-management of the immediate producers. But if the self-management of producers is a necessary condition of the dealienation of the economic life, it is not of itself a sufficient condition. It does not solve automatically the problem of de-alienation in distribution and consumption, and is not by itself sufficient even for the de-alienation of production. Some forms of alienation in production have their roots in the nature of present-day means of production, so that they cannot be eliminated by a mere change in the form of managing production.